Forever Destiny
by ElvenPrincess01
Summary: Kairi ends up in Spira mysteriously without her memories of her past life. However, when a certain spiky-haired boy finds and her tells her that they are close friends and she used to be a Keyblade wielder who traversed different worlds, fighting Heartless to bring peace, she realizes that recovering her memories will be the step to unlocking her potential and her true destiny.
1. Memory Blank

Full Summary: A young girl named Kairi ended up in the world of Spira mysteriously, without any memories of her former life, befriending a trio of sphere hunters and remaining blissfully unaware of the past. However, when a certain brown-haired boy with spiky hair suddenly arrives in the same world, saying that they are close friends and that she's part of a group of Keyblade wielders who travel to different worlds, fighting Heartless as part of their mission to bring peace to the worlds, she finds that recovering her lost memories will be the step to unlocking her potential and realizing her true destiny. NOT KINGDOM HEARTS CANON.

Hellooooooooooooooooooooo people of the Fanfiction universe! What is happening?! Lol, sorry, I overdosed on some caffeine today *cough cough* I probably should stop drinking so much Mountain Dew…anyways, my name is ElvenPrincess01. This is my first story, so I'm a little nervous about how it will turn out, but I'm excited to be writing my very own fanfic.

I've had this idea for a story since last year and I've been working on it since then. The idea I first started out with is VERY different from the final version. I reworked most of the entire plot, but the original idea is still here, Kairi losing her memories and everything. I was going to follow Kingdom Hearts canon, but I decided against that and did something (almost) entirely different. I reworked the characterization for some of the characters too, especially Kairi. Kairi is very different from how I originally depicted. She was a little too…grim, hardened, and almost dark, not like a Princess of Heart. She was almost like Riku in a way. So I changed her character to be more bright and cheerful. I'm quite pleased with how she turned out

A certain someone was _supposed_ to be here to read the disclaimer…but I guess I'll just have to do that myself.

ElvenPrincess01 does **NOT** own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or Disney in any shape or form. And if she did, she wouldn't put all the games out on different systems. Because she doesn't have a Nintendo 3DS and she is dying to play Dream Drop Distance.

Enjoy!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Prologue**

_No one knows where Kingdom Hearts comes from, but it has been here for as long as anyone can remember, acting as the heart of all worlds. Since all hearts, save for the Princesses of Heart, contain light and darkness in them, Kingdom Hearts can give someone the power of light, or the power of darkness, depending on the affinity in the person's heart. But the only way this can be done is through the X Blade, the fist Keyblade in existence and the most powerful one. _

_Using the X Blade, the user can unleash the power of Kingdom Hearts, bringing peace and serenity, or chaos and destruction. In order to protect the peace, there have been seven Guardians of Kingdom Hearts, who protect the X Blade and keep it safe, using Keyblades, designed after the X Blade. When a Guardian reached old age, he or she would pick a successor and the successor would become a new Guardian in the place of their predecessor. This tradition continued for many generations…until one fateful day._

_Many years ago, one of the Guardians, hungry for power, betrayed the other Guardians and took the X Blade for himself, unleashing the power of darkness on the land. However, he unintentionally unleashed a new form of creatures on the land, which seemed to come from the darkness the Guardian unleashed from Kingdom Hearts. These beings were later called Heartless. They quickly began destroying the world and traveled to other worlds to wreak havoc._

_The other Guardians banded together to stop their former teammate and managed to get the X Blade from him. After they had defeated him, they recovered the X Blade and brought back light to the world. Some of the light from Kingdom Hearts was transferred to the Guardians through the X Blade, purifying them of all darkness in their hearts, turning them into the first Princesses of Heart, maidens with hearts of pure lights. But the damage was already done to the world Kingdom Hearts was located above, and it, once a beautiful and lush paradise, was majorly destroyed in the battle. _

_To prevent something like this from happening again, the Guardians made sure to hide the X Blade, someplace no one could find, so that darkness wouldn't plague the world again. The Heartless that escaped to other worlds needed to be stopped, so the Guardians, and now, Princesses of Heart, traveled to other lands, destroying Heartless and finding new Keyblade wielders to continue the cause. The tradition of seven wielders protecting the X Blade was broken, but wielders bravely went to battle against the Heartless enemies. After the deaths of the original Princesses of Heart, there would be a new generation of Princesses of Heart, maidens of pure hearts, though they never became Keyblade wielders. _

_The cycle continued throughout the years, and Keyblade wielders continued to fight the Heartless, seeking to bring peace back to the realms…_

_000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

**Chapter 1: Memory Blank**

Kairi POV

My name is Kairi. Don't bother asking me what my favorite memory is, because I don't really have one. It's not because I'm depressed or anything like that. It's because I don't have any previous memories at all.

About a few weeks ago, I woke up in this place called Spira, without any memories. I couldn't remember anything, save my name. When I awoke, my body felt sore all over, like I was in a battle and had taken one too many hits. My head was pounding, and I couldn't remember how I had gotten where I was. Everything looked foreign to me. I didn't recognize my surroundings at all. I was on what appeared to be an island, surrounded by tall palm trees and wooden huts, bordered by an expanse of water. The sun was starting its descent into the west, the sky a brilliant mix of reds, oranges, and yellows.

My body still ached, so I waited there, waiting for the feeling to come back into my legs. While I doing so, I was found by three girls who looked to be a couple years older than me, passing by. Their names were Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. They saw me on the ground and came over to ask me if I was alright.

After explaining my plight to them, they decided to help me find my memories. They thought that I must be from somewhere in Spira, and that I should travel around with them, in hopes that someone would recognize me. I've been with them ever since.

Yuna is a very adventurous and somewhat impulsive person, but very polite and ready to lend a hand. She was the one in the trio who found me first and was the one to suggest that I come with her and the others. She's a very determined person and always stands tall in the face of danger, even if the odds are against her.

Rikku's a happy-go-lucky and energetic person. She's kind of a chatterbox, and isn't afraid to speak her mind, which is something I admire. She's kind of like the glue that holds everyone together. She's also a very optimistic person and truly believes that I will be able to regain my lost memories; her belief is contagious.

And then there's Paine. Unlike Yuna and Rikku who carry a cheery disposition, Paine bears a tough exterior. She's the rational and level-headed one in the group, knocking the other two Gullwings back into reality when their ideas get out of this world. She doesn't do a lot of talking, but when she does, her sarcasm is never far off.

However, despite all this, Paine has a caring and kind heart, and truly cares for the people around her, even though she doesn't really show it. Cool, calm and collected. She kinda reminds me of someone, though I can't imagine why since I lost my memories and I never met anyone like her on Spira…strange…

Anyways, Yuna, RIkku, and Paine, or the Gullwings as they liked to be called, are sphere hunters. I figured out from them that spheres are items that serve a variety of purposes, depending on which ones you find. There are Dresspheres that allow the user to change accessories, Search spheres, which contain hidden treasure, and more.

The most interesting ones I think are Movie Spheres, in which people can record images, sounds, and thoughts for later viewing. I think that's really cool.

Yuna, RIkku, and Paine are looking for the Search spheres, the ones that contain hidden treasure. I've noticed that they're somewhat zealous for treasure, and they want to find all the Search spheres they can.

Paine is more interested in the Movie Spheres, curious to learn more about the events that occurred on Spira. The trio has been in the sphere hunting business for a while, but they haven't been able to find that many.

While looking for spheres one day, they were separated from their ship, the _Celsius_, and the rest of their group, while locked in a battle with some LeBlanc Syndicate or something. Yuna and the others have been trying to find them ever since, but with no luck.

But in the meantime, they're looking for spheres, so that when they get back to the ship, they'll be able to have them analyzed. Yuna and Rikku are fervently hoping for treasure for this one we're searching for now.

We were in what is called Macalania Woods. It's a beautiful place, with thick, lush trees and a variety of springs that litter the landscape. The whole place seemed to glitter and the fading rays of sunlight that seeped through the trees illuminated the water, but for all its beauty, the woods don't come without confusion. It's like a maze in here and how Yuna, who is leading, is able to find her way is a mystery to me.

We passed by a pond and I stopped to look at a giant, towering tree in the center, its thick foliage spread out in grand fashion. The trunk looked to be as thick as steel. I wondered if the roots dug underground. It was a sight to see, a tree sitting in the midst of a pool of water.

I was startled out of my reverie by the sound of RIkku's ever so chipper voice. "Kairi! Come on!" I turned to my right to see her and the others up the path.

"Oh, sorry!" I apologized, temporarily forgetting we were on a mission. I jogged over to them, my sneakers treading over the soft dirt of the ground floor.

Rikku rubbed her hands together as she smiled excitedly. "Oh, I hope it's treasure!" She giggled happily, a spring in her step.

"Does it matter?" Paine voiced. "We won't be able to figure out until we find the _Celsius_ and have Shinra analyze it." Yep, Paine was the voice of reason.

Rikku pouted at her. "Hey! Why do you have to ruin my fun? Couldn't you try to be a little more excited?"

"No," Paine said simply.

"Well I think you should-oh!" RIkku suddenly lost her step and went tumbling into a thick area of foliage, disappearing behind it.

"RIkku!" We shouted, quickly running over to where she went through.

"RIkku! Can you hear us?" Yuna asked, worry and concern written over her face.

It was a few seconds before Rikku responded. "Guys, I think we found it!"

We shared looks before Paine pushed back the foliage to reveal a small cave. It was hidden behind the shrubbery. Rikku was standing in there, looking up at something. She turned to us, pointing forward, a gleeful look on her face. "Look! It's the sphere!"

We went into the cave to see what Rikku was talking about. It was about the size of a large bedroom. It was a good thing it was still light outside and the fading rays from the sun served to shine some light into the place, because it was completely dark. I looked around at the walls, but couldn't see anything. At the front of the cave, where Rikku was pointing, was a pedestal, on which a sphere sat.

"Wow," I said. "I guess it's a good thing you lost your step then, Rikku."

Her grin wider, as if she had planned it all along. "I guess it is, huh?"

Approaching the sphere, I was able to get a better look at it. It was a blue, almost transparent orb, encircled in a thick gold band. There was a red jewel embedded in it.

Yuna walked up to the pedestal and picked the sphere up into her hands. She stared at it for a second before turning around to face us, raising the sphere up into the air.

"All right, guys, we got a sphere!" She beamed.

I reciprocated her smile while Rikku jumped in the air, cheering.

"Look like it's a Movie Sphere!" I saw Paine crack a smile before looking outside the cave door. "It's getting late outside," she spoke. "We should get back to the camp before night hits."

"Right," Yuna agreed, sticking the sphere into the tan leather pouch on the left side of her hip. "Let's go."

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Later that night while I slept, I had a dream. I've been having some weird dreams lately. I couldn't remember where I was, since I'm not very good at remembering the fine details of my dreams, but I was standing in the center of a horde of some weird-looking monsters, tall black things with antennas and yellow eyes. I…think I was fighting them. I mean, I had some kind of weapon in my hand and I was slashing through them, like they were paper or something. They disappeared like ash upon contact. I don't remember what the weapon looked like at all.

But that's not the only dream I've had. I've had a recurring dream for a while now. Not much goes on in it, but it's always the same. All I see is white and at the farthest point where I can see, I can see a blurry figure, their back facing me. I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl, but they're wearing black. And…I think they have what looks like brown hair. I try to catch up with them, but it seems the more I run, the farther they get from me. I try to open my voice to call out to them, but I realize I can't speak. This is when I wake up.

I sat up slowly up in my bed, trying to recollect my thoughts. I look over to see the others sleeping away in the tent. Rikku is snoring quietly. And she claims she doesn't snore. I smile a little.

I got out of my bed and the idea to visit a spring back in Macalania Woods just pops into my mind. It's an idea I decide to act upon.

I went back into Macalania Woods, not too far inside, sitting by a spring. The place looked even more beautiful at night, a calm serenity hanging over the place. I had been sitting there for about ten minutes. The moonlight shone upon the water and I gazed out at it, trying to relax my mind.

A cool breeze blew through and I shivered. Unfortunately, my pink strapless mini-dress didn't provide the best comfort for cold weather. I lamented not having a jacket, rubbing my arms in an effort to stay warm. I pulled the black hood attached to my dress over my head. I heard somewhere that if your head was warm, the rest of your body would become warm too. Time to see if the rumors were true.

As I sat there thinking, I suddenly heard a rustle in the bushes behind me. I whipped around, my eyes wide with fright. "Who's there?!" I asked, fear in my voice.

_Oh man, I don't even have a weapon_, I thought. _Great, just great, Kairi._ My fingers found a medium-sized rock on the ground. I wasn't sure how effective it was going to be if I was up against a monster like the ones Yuna, Rikku and Paine told me about, but I was ready to give it my all. I wasn't going down without a fight.

There was a rustle in the bushes again and…out came Paine. I breathed a sigh of relief, my fingers releasing the rock back onto the ground.

"Hey," Paine spoke quietly, "did I scare you?"

"A little bit," I lied. She nearly freaked me out. My heart was still going a mile a minute.

Paine came over next to me to sit down. She stared out at the glistening spring. "Couldn't sleep?" She finally asked.

I shook my head. "No. I keep having these strange dreams. I'm not sure what they're supposed to mean," I mused. I felt that the recurring dream I had been having must be important; after all, why would I keep having it? But I couldn't think of why.

Paine thought about it for a minute. "Maybe it's your memories trying to come back to you."

I looked over at her. "You think so?"

She shrugged. "Why not? I don't think your memories are completely gone. I think they're hidden deep somewhere and you just have to make them resurface." She looked at me. "Don't worry. They'll come back to you at the right time."

I smiled to myself, inspired by Paine's words. Paine had been a really good friend to me these weeks, always acting as a beacon of support and wisdom. It seemed that she had a troubled life, but became stronger from her ordeals and gained a lot of knowledge from it. She really was an amazing person.

"You're right. Thanks," I said, grateful.

"Don't mention it. You wanna head back now?" She jerked her head back towards the camp.

"Yeah." I got up, smoothing out the creases in my dress. As soon as we got back to the camp, I went right back to sleep. I had no more dreams that night.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A couple days later, we arrived at the Calm Lands. However, I think they should be renamed the Calm Plains, because that's all I see: plains. Plains, plains, and more plains. There was a wide expanse of grass, with towering hills rising up out of the ground.

There was a village off in the distance. As we got closer, I could see a variety of people milling about. There were also some Chocobos roaming around, free from their pen I assumed. I turned this way and that, in wonder of everything I saw. It was so much to take in.

Yuna must have seen my face, because she said to me," You can go have a look around. I just need to pick up some items and equipment."

"Gee, thanks," I said, grateful for the chance to explore.

"Don't stray too far off," RIkku sang.

"I won't," I promised. "See you!" And with that, I was on my way.

Around the area, there was a lot to do. I enjoyed playing several different games around the tiny village, and I even got to ride a Chocobo. I was a little apprehensive at first, never riding anything like one in my life, but it was amazing. I laughed as we breezed over the ground, the wind blowing through my hair. I felt like I was on top of the world.

I laid down outside the village, a distance away, but still close enough where I could still hear the noise from inside the village. I know I told the others I wouldn't go far, but I couldn't help myself. Laid spread-eagled on the ground, I closed my eyes. The sun warmed my face and my skin. I felt totally relaxed. It was like a paradise to me. A smile crept onto my face.

Whilst relaxing, I heard a sudden whooshing noise. Frowning, I sat up, my eyes widening as they viewed a black, shimmering portal roughly twenty feet away from me. Out came what looked to be a large and round anthropomorphized cat standing over six feet tall, with black fur.

He was donned in blue and purple armor above a red, short-sleeved shirt. His pants were navy blue with purple lower leg garments, and there were two large purple pouches on either side. Navy blue and white sneakers were on his feet, and purple gloves were on his hands. There was an extremely large zipper going down the front of his outfit and stretching across to the back side of his pants.

Huffing like he was running out of breath, he ran past me, not noticing me. I ogled at him for a few more seconds before I saw another figure emerge from the strange portal. He only took a couple steps before he collapsed to the ground onto his knees. The portal disappeared a second later.

Seeing someone in need of help, I quickly got to my feet and ran over to him. I tucked a piece of my auburn hair behind my ear as I leaned over him.

"Are you ok?" I asked, concerned. I wasn't sure what exactly was supposed to be going on, especially with the other guy (or animal) that ran out earlier, but I could worry about that later.

The person remained on their knees, breathing deeply. It was several seconds before he responded. "I'm fine. I just-"He stopped in the middle of what he was about to say when he looked up at my face, his eyes wide with shock.

"K-K-Kairi?!"

I gazed back at him in confusion. I didn't recognize him at all. He looked to be about my age, and was somewhat lanky with spiky chocolate-colored hair and bright, shining blue eyes, which were full of wonder.

He wore a black and silver overjacket and a baggy black jumpsuit. On his feet, were large black and yellow shoes. There were black fingerless gloves on his hands and a silver crown necklace hung from around his neck. Two large red pouches hung from both sides of his hips and yellow straps criss-crossed on his legs. Zippers covered his entire outfit.

"Uh…"I started, unsure of what to say.

A wide grin appeared on his features and he was on his feet in a second, despite being out of breath just a moment ago. "Kairi! I can't believe it's you! I've been looking for you forever!" He looked as if a heavy burden had just been lifted from his shoulders.

"Uhh…" I started again.

"The others and I have been looking all over the place. I was really worried about you. I thought something bad happened to you. But it turns out you're ok," he beamed.

"Uh…" I tried again, "do I…know you?" I was beyond confused.

Sora laughed. "Ha ha ha, that's funny, Kairi." He looked around at his surroundings. "But seriously, how'd you end up over here? I've never been to this world before…"His forehead crinkled in confusion.

I still stared back at him. "No seriously, who are you?"

The boy in questioned turned his attention back to me. "You can stop joking now, Kairi. I know it's you."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. I've never seen you a day in my life."

"What…what are you talking about?" He seemed slightly upset.

I shook my head, smiling grimly. "I don't know who you are. Sorry," I apologized.

"Come on, Kairi!" He pleaded a begging look in his eyes. "Don't you remember me?"

I tilted my head at him, squinting my eyes, trying to get a better look at him. "…should I?"

"It's me! Sora! We're best friends, remember?"

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

And that's a wrap! Some things in the story played out differently than how I imagined them in the story, but I like how it turned out. Sora has appeared on the scene, but Kairi doesn't remember him at all. So he's going to be working on trying to get her to remember him.

But thanks for reading! Things are going to start picking up soon, so stick around for future updates. I really appreciate if anyone is reading this story. Like I said, it's my first fanfic, so I'm hoping for some feedback. It would be nice if you could leave a review, but I won't hold it over your heads if you don't.

As I said before, thanks so much for reading and subscribe for more-

Sora: Hey, am I late?

Me: Sora? What are you doing here?! You were supposed to be here at the beginning of the story to give the disclaimer! *sighs*

Sora: Wait, where are we now?

Me: We're at the end. I just gave the final words to the readers.

Sora: Ohhhh…so do I still get paid?

Me: …

Sora: Sorry, I meant to be here earlier, but I got caught up in sword fighting with Riku, and well-

Me: Show up next time on time, please?

Sora: *salutes* Sure thing, captain! Can I give the closing remarks?

Me: Why not? You already missed your cue at the beginning.

Sora: OK! Thanks for reading, Fanfiction people! Please subscribe for more from ElvenPrincess01. She really would appreciate it! Stay tuned for more!

ElvenPrincess01

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


	2. Do You Remember The Times?

Wow, so I can't believe I got reviews for the story and I can't believe that they're actually positive. I didn't think anyone would be reading my story. Thanks a lot you guys. You have no idea how happy you made me

Riku: Yes, ElvenPrincess01 would like to thank you for taking the time to read her story.

Me: Oh Riku, you're here. Where's Sora?

Riku: Eating sea-salt ice-cream with Roxas.

Me: *sighs* Typical. Then Riku, would you be as kind as to give the disclaimer for the story?

Riku: No problem. *clears throat* ElvenPrincess01 does not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or Disney in her possession. So please don't sue her. Otherwise I'd be out of a job.

Me: Thank you very much, Riku. Now, on to the story!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Previous Chapter _

"_I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. I've never seen you a day in my life."_

"_What…what are you talking about?" He seemed slightly upset._

_I shook my head, smiling grimly. "I don't know who you are. Sorry," I apologized._

"_Come on, Kairi!" He pleaded a begging look in his eyes. "Don't you remember me?"_

_I tilted my head at him, squinting my eyes, trying to get a better look at him. "…should I?"_

"_It's me! Sora! We're best friends, remember?"_

_00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

**Chapter 2: Do You Remember The Times?**

I stared blankly at the boy in front of me, not making any sense of the words he was speaking.

"W-w-what?" I probably sounded a little stupid.

"Remember? We used to live on Destiny Islands? You washed up on the beach when we were just kids and you lived there ever since. And then about several months ago, King Mickey crash-landed on the islands with his Gummi ship and then-"

"Wait, whoa whoa WHOA!" I held my hands out in front of me. The boy stopped talking, looking at me expectantly. "You're not making any sense right now. Who's King Mickey?"

The boy's jaw dropped. "You mean…you don't remember anyone?" Seeing my blank expression, he continued. "Riku…? Yen Sid…? Oh come on, don't tell you don't remember Riku! The three of us are best friends!"

I shook my head. "Sorry, but I don't remember any of that."

"We used to travel around to different worlds and defeat the Heartless there, using our Keyblades. You, me, and Riku. Are you telling me that you don't remember any of that?"

"The only thing I remember is here, in Spira. And what the heck is a Keyblade?"

The spiky-haired newcomer seemed shocked to say the least. "You forgot that much?"

"Listen," I began, trying to calm him down, "I know I lost my memory. But there is _no_ way I traveled to different worlds and fought these…these…these Heartless things you mentioned. I'm pretty sure I came from Spira. I never heard of any distant worlds, let alone traveling through them." I thought about the portal he came through, but told myself that he probably came from somewhere else in the country.

"But…we did!" Sora seemed desperate. "I have pictures of us together!"

I crossed my arms over my chest, looking at him with skepticism. "And…where are these pictures? Can I see them?"

"Er…" he scratched the back of his head, looking around sheepishly. "Well you see…I…don't have them with me. I don't really…carry them around with me like that…"

"Hmm-hmm." I was not impressed in the slightest. "Well if you don't have any proof, then I can't believe you."

He opened his mouth to say something when I heard Yuna's voice behind. "Kairi!" I heard her call out. "Kairi!"

I turned around to see Yuna at the entrance to the village, looking around for me. "I'm coming!" I called back.

I turned around to the boy with an apologetic smile on my face. "I gotta go. I think you got the wrong person." I started to back away. "But, good luck with finding who you're looking for!" My feet increased in pace as I turned away from him and started to jog towards Yuna.

"Wait! But Kairi!" I heard him call from behind me. Ignoring him, I jogged faster, eager to put as much distance between me and him. I listened to see if he was following behind me. I didn't hear a thing, which I was grateful for.

I ran up to Yuna, taking in some deep breaths from the near sprint I was just doing. "Hey, what's up?"

"Kairi, I told you not go too far," she chided, though she didn't see too upset. "What were you doing?"

"Oh, nothing," I lied, grabbing her hand. "Come on, I wanna go ride the chocobo again!" I grinned, pulling a confused Yuna with me. I put all thoughts about the stranger in the back of my mind as I tried to focus on having a good time.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"So why exactly did we buy bathing suits and where are we going?" I questioned the group at large.

Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were being mysteriously quiet about where they were leading me. We were going through the mountain trails of Mt. Gagazet.

Mt. Gagazet was a large, snow-capped mountain with snow hanging off the sides of the mountain peaks and covering sections on the ground, yet for some reason, I didn't feel very cold, though a little chilly. But overall I was feeling comfortable wearing no sleeves. I wondered to myself why that was.

Rikku, who was walking in front of me, her long blonde braids bouncing behind her, turned her head to face me, a sly grin on her face. She pressed a finger to her lips. "Shhh...it's a secret," she whispered.

"We're going to the-"

"Paine!" Rikku exclaimed, stomping her foot. "Don't ruin the surprise!" Paine just rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else.

Yuna smiled back at me. "You'll see when we get there. But you're gonna love it."

We walked for a few more minutes when we came past some stone pillars that rose into the sky, several on each side of the wide path we were going down. At the end of them, I saw a tall blue-haired figure standing by himself.

Yuna seemed to recognize him, for she gasped. "Kimahri!" She took off at a brisk jog. The rest of us followed.

The figure turned to see who was calling him and I got a better look at his face. I'd never seen anyone like him. He had yellow eyes and his face resembled a lion, fierce and somewhat frightening. Actually, he looked like a walking lion, with massive clawed hands, thick muscles, and a long tail curling behind him.

He had long white hair that fell down his back with braids on the side and a little white beard. His ears were pointed and his left ear had two earrings hanging from them. Protruding from his forehead was a white horn that looked like it was broken. He held a long lance in one hand and he dressed like he was a tribal member. I imagined him to be a high-ranking person in his community.

"Yuna," he greeted in a deep and gravelly voice. "And friends," he added when he saw Rikku and Paine." His eyes fell on me. Maybe it was just me being paranoid, but it almost seemed like his eyes narrowed a bit when he saw me, like he wasn't exactly happy to see me. I guess he didn't take too kindly to strangers.

His gaze seemed to penetrate me and I felt a little nervous. He was well over six feet tall, so I already felt short, but when I was right next to him with his gaze fixed right on me, I felt even shorter.

"Oh, this is Kairi," Yuna introduced. "She's a friend of ours. Kairi, this is Kimahri. He's the Elder of the Ronso Tribe. He kinda protects the mountains around here."

"Mountain needs guarding from dangerous people. People trample sacred land of mountain. But Yuna and friends are fine. They can proceed." He looked at me while he was speaking as if he was reluctant to let me past. But since I was with Yuna, there wasn't much he could do about it.

"Thanks Kimahri," Yuna appreciated. "I'll come back later to talk, ok?" And with that, we were on our way. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when we were a good distance from the blue-skinned elder.

"You alright?" Yuna asked.

"Yeah. I just feel that Kimahri doesn't like me very much..." I admitted.

Yuna giggled. "Yeah, Kimahri isn't very friendly with strangers. He doesn't trust them. But he's actually a pretty nice and gentle guy once you get to know him."

We climbed through more mountain trails, passing by a glistening waterfall and caverns. In one of them, there was a couple of these weird creatures that looked like balls with a giant red eye and sharp teeth with a long tail hanging from them. Wings came out of their sides.

They were flying around one side of the cavern while we were at the other side. We carefully tip-toed our way past them, not looking to fight any battles. Fortunately, they never noticed us.

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached our destination. Yuna ran a bit ahead and stopped, whirling around to face us. "Ok, we're here!" She cheered.

I frowned, glancing around. All I saw was mountain. "Er, where's here? I don't see anything that we haven't been seeing for a while now."

Yuna giggled. "Silly, 'here' isn't up here. It's down there." She pointed to a wide hole behind her. I walked up to it. I peered down in but couldn't see much.

"You want me...to jump down there?" I'd liked to consider myself an adventurous person. But I was a little hesitant to jump down a hole that I couldn't even see in, even if a friend was telling me to do so.

"It's not a long jump," Rikku said, suddenly appearing next to me. "And you'll realize what it's in it when you go down in there."

I still wasn't all that convinced, but I decided to take a chance. I sighed. "Okay...if you say so." I took a deep breath and hopped down the hole. I closed my eyes as I fell down the hole, feeling lightless for a second, before I fell into...water?

I opened my eyes to find myself half-submerged in a pool of water. I looked around and I received the answer to the question I had been wondering about where Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were leading me. It was a hot springs. They led me to a hot springs.

_Well that explains the bathing suits,_ I thought. I felt a smile creep onto my face.

"So do you like the surprise?" Rikku asked down the hole, her voice echoing against the cave walls.

"I love it," I replied, splashing my hands around in the water.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Ahhh!" Rikku shrieked as I splashed her with some water, giggling evilly as I did so. "Not the eyes!" She cowered, covering her face with her hands.

Paine came from behind her and splashed her from behind.

"Ahhh!" She shrieked again, twisting this way and that trying to protect her body from the playful attack. "Help Yunie, I'm being attacked!" "Yunie" was Rikku's name for Yuna.

Yuna, off by herself sitting at the edge of the hot springs, shrugged lazily.

"I would, but I'm kind of comfortable over here." She reinforced her point by sinking lower into the water. She sighed in contentment. "Ah, that's good..."

"Yunie!" I splashed Rikku a few more times before I waded my way over to where Yuna was, sitting down next to her. "Ah, that does feel good," I agreed. I looked over to where Rikku and Paine had engaged themselves in a splash battle, attempting to outdo one another.

"Were you talking to someone when I came to find you earlier?" Yuna suddenly asked, catching me by surprise. I didn't think she noticed. "I couldn't really be sure since you pulled me away so quickly."

The out of the blue arrival of that boy and what he said popped back into my mind. I had already forgotten about it, even though it only happened a couple hours before. I had put all thoughts about him into the back of my mind, and with the events since, like playing in the hot springs now, I didn't think about it much.

I considering lying, but Yuna was my friend, and I didn't want to betray her trust. Besides, she was already suspicious, so why hide the fact?

"I meant someone who said that he knew me."

Yuna nearly fell over, but managed to catch herself, eyes bugging out at me.

"What?!" She exclaimed. Her sudden outburst caught the attention of our two other companions, who glanced our way for a moment.

"You're just telling me this now?" I'm could tell that Yuna was fighting to keep her voice even.

"Yes, he knew my name and told me things about a supposed past I used to have before I lost my memories."

"And?"

I looked at her. "And what?" I glanced away. "His claims are bogus. He says he knows me but can't produce any proof, like photos or something."

"But...this may be the key you're looking for! Someone who recognizes you. Isn't this what you wanted?"

I sat up a bit in the water, kicking my legs out lazily. "He said I was from a different world other than Spira. That makes no sense. I mean, have you ever heard of travel between different worlds? Have you ever heard of there even being other worlds out there?"

Yuna gazed down at the water in thought. "Well...now that you mention it...I haven't."

"Exactly! That guy was probably a stalker or something. I don't know how he got my name, but there was no way I was going back with him. He seemed somewhat suspicious." I remembered the swirling portal he first emerged out of. I decided not to tell Yuna about it. It might confuse her. Heck, it confused me.

Yuna sighed. "This sucks. Just when it seemed like you managed to get your memories back, it turns out it was a false lead." Yuna looked disappointed.

I shrugged. "Guess I just have to keep searching, right?"

"Yeah...I wonder if you'll ever see that guy again," Yuna said.

"Nah, I wouldn't count on it. I won't probably see him again."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Imagine my surprise when I ran into the same spiky-haired guy while poking around the mountain trails while the others were catching up with Kimahri where we found him.

He gasped in excitement. "Kairi! I've been looking for you! Well I've been looking for Pete too, but mainly you."

I fought back the urge to roll my eyes and settled instead on letting out a sigh of frustration.

"Haven't we already had this conversation before? I don't know who you are, but you need to leave me alone." I wanted to continue down the trail, but there wasn't enough room for me to get around him.

"Kairi, come on! We gotta get back to Yen Sid and the Mysterious Tower. We still have to take our Mark of Mastery exams. We were about to take ours before you disappeared and-"

"Yen Sid? Mark of Mastery?" The question mark above my head was nearly visible. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then maybe you'll remember this." The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object that fit into the palm of his hand. It looked like a flower, five-pointed thalassa shells stitched together by grey, X-shaped stitches. The object was pale yellow towards the center and pale pink towards the tips.

I tilted my head at it curiously. "What is that?"

"It's your lucky charm. You gave it to me before I was to take my Mark of Mastery exam. You couldn't take yours because you hurt your Keyblade-holding arm the day before we were to take the exam, so you gave me your lucky charm to give me luck while I took the exam."

I continued to stare at the object. It was actually quite pretty. But that wasn't the reason I was staring at it.

"Why...does that look so familiar?"

A hopeful look appeared on Sora's face. "Because it's yours, it's your lucky charm. You still remember something! I knew you couldn't have forgotten everything." He seemed pleased with himself.

I shook my head. "That doesn't prove anything. For all I know, it could be reminding me of something I saw here in Spira." Maybe I was being stubborn, but I wasn't quite ready to concede yet.

"I don't get it," Sora said quietly, like he was talking to himself. He held his arm out in front of him and a long object suddenly materialized into his hand in a sparkle of light. I nearly jumped in surprise, my eyes widening. It was a huge shock.

"Does this prove my point?" He asked.

The thing he had in his hand resembled a sword, a hilt and everything. The actual sword part was long and silver as most swords go, but this one was shaped like a key, teeth on the very end shaped in the form of a crown. A silver keychain even hung from the hilt with a mouse head on the end and the guard was bright gold. It was like a key sword or something. As I stared at the weapon in awe, the boy continued.

"This is Kingdom Key, my Keyblade."

Oh. Well I wasn't that far off from Keyblade.

"How'd...how'd you so that?" I asked in fascination.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Simple. I just hold my hand out and will it to come into my hand. You can do it too."

"Huh?" I looked up at him. "What so you mean?"

"You can summon a Keyblade too. Just hold your hand out and summon it to you."

I stared blankly at him. "Yeah...oh, I think I can hear someone calling me." I lied. "I think I better be on my way. You should too."

The boy put his hand to his side and the weapon disappeared in a flash of light just like it appeared.

"Wait Kairi, you can't go yet. You still haven't summoned your Keyblade." He stood a step towards me.

I took a step backward. "Look, it was nice talking to you, but I can't be associating with stalkers and what not."

"Stalker? You think I'm a _stalker_?"

"You can't prove who you are or our relationship between us, yet you want me to come with you. Sounds pretty stalkerish if you ask me."

"Don't you remember the worlds we visited?" He drew closer to me, a frantic expression on his face. "Agrabah? Atlantica? Halloween Town? Don't you at least remember Hollow Bastion?"

I took some more steps back. "I have to go. Please don't come near me again. Thanks," I added when I saw him open his mouth to say something. And I turned on my heel and fast walked as fast as I could without tripping over. I didn't dare turn around until I was safe distance away. Once again, he didn't follow. I saw his retreating figure, his shoulders slumped over a little.

Staring at his back somehow made that recurring dream appear in my mind, making my heart stop for a moment as I thought about something.

The figure in my dream was dressed in all black and had brown hair. This Sora dude was dressed in all black and had brown spiky hair. Seeing him walk away from me seemed to suggest that the figure walking away in my dream was...

No. _No way_. But...did that mean...that the figure from the dream I kept having...was Sora? Was it a past memory that was trying to make it to the surface of my consciousness? Did that mean...what he said...did that mean that was true? Did I use to know him?

I still gaped after him even after he dropped out of sight. So many thoughts were racing through my head that I felt that I needed to sit down and take it all in.

I retraced my steps back up the trail, wanting to meet back up with the rest of the group. I was so lost in thought that I wasn't looking where I was going and I ended up bumping into someone, bouncing off them and tumbling gracelessly to the ground.

"Oww," I moaned, rubbing my aching butt. I glanced up and my face turned into shock when I saw who it was I bumped into.

"Eh?" The large, hulking figure whirled around, looking down and seeing me down on the ground.

It was that giant cat dude that came out of that gateway the Sora boy followed him through.

He looked just as astonished to see me as I was to see him.

"It's you!" His eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Hmm...you can't be with that stupid brat since he was alone when he followed me through that Corridor of Darkness." He chuckled sinisterly. "Which means you're all alone. I still owe you for ruining Maleficent's plans previously." He had an evil glint in his eyes which put me at unease. I backed away from him, still sitting on my butt.

"I...I don't know who you are. Or this Maleficent person." I said truthfully.

Cat Dude chuckled again. "Nice try, but the memory loss trick isn't going to work on me. I'm the mighty Pete! I'm going to help Maleficent conquer all the worlds with her Heartless army! And I'll show you why." He lifted his head up. "Heartless squad!" He shouted, scaring me a bit. "Round up!"

I was even more scared when I saw what the Heartless squad was. Several little black creatures barely three feet tall with yellow eyes and antennae coming out of their heads all of a sudden materialized out of puffs of darkness next to Cat Dude. They twisted this way and that, moving about on the spot, restless. Frightened, I backed away even more, trying to get as far from the creatures as I could.

Cat Dude leveled a finger at me, a wicked grin on his goofy-looking face.

"Get her," he commanded his squad.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

So yes, Kairi is coming to terms about her lost memories. What's going to happen to her in the next chapter? You'll just have to wait and find out.

I've planned out the next couple chapters of the story, so the updates will come relatively quicker. I don't think you'll have to wait as long for the next chapter as you waited for this chapter. I am working on another story on another site, but I'm balancing my time on both stories. I quit my job a couple days ago so I'll be able to devote more time for this story.

Sora: Am I late again?

Me:...

Riku:…

Me: …Riku already did the disclaimer at the beginning of the story, Sora. Yes, you're late.

Sora: Ohhhh. Sorry. I guess I lost track of time sitting on top of the clock tower in Twilight Town, eating ice cream with Roxas.

Me: You were on a clock tower! How'd you lose track of time?

Sora:…

Me: *sighs* Just show up on time next time. Otherwise, you're fired.

Sora: *gasps* No, you can't! I need this job. Fighting Heartless isn't a paying job, you know.

Me: Then make an effort to be punctual.

Sora: Don't worry, I won't disappoint!

Me: Readers, thanks for reading!

Riku: Feel free to leave a review and subscribe to the story.

Sora: And stay tuned for more! Bye!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


	3. I Want To Line The Pieces Up

Yo, ElvenPrincess01 here! What's up? What's going down?

Sora: Wow ElvenPrincess01, I didn't know you could talk like that.

Me: Why yes, I…wait a minute…Sora? You're actually here? On time?

Sora: I have my moments! Plus you threatened my job, so I figured I should get my act together.

Riku: I made sure that he got here on time.

Me: Thank you, Riku. It's nice to have a responsible person around here.

Sora: Hey!

Me: Boys, you know the drill.

Riku: Right. ElvenPrincess01 does not own anything Kingdom Hearts-related.

Sora: Or Disney-related or Final Fantasy-related.

Me: Now onto the story! *points finger dramatically*

Riku: Er, what are you pointing at?

Me: I'm…not entirely sure. I just wanted to be dramatic.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Previous Chapter _

_Cat Dude chuckled again. "Nice try, but the memory loss trick isn't going to work on me. I'm the mighty Pete! I'm going to help Maleficent conquer all the worlds with her Heartless army! And I'll show you why." He lifted his head up. "Heartless squad!" He shouted, scaring me a bit. "Round up!"_

_I was even more scared when I saw what the Heartless squad was. Several little black creatures barely three feet tall with yellow eyes and antennae coming out of their heads all of a sudden materialized out of puffs of darkness next to Cat Dude. They twisted this way and that, moving about on the spot, restless. Frightened, I backed away even more, trying to get as far from the creatures as I could._

_Cat Dude leveled a finger at me, a wicked grin on his goofy-looking face._

_"Get her," he commanded his squad._

_00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

**Chapter 3: I Want To Line The Pieces Up…Yours and Mine**

The creatures fixed their yellow eyes on me and my heart went down into my stomach as they advanced towards me.

"N-n-no!" Terrified, I screamed, trying to move back as quickly as possible. Cat Dude threw his head back, laughing evilly.

The nearest creature to me was only a few feet away from me. I wasn't sure what these creatures could do to me, but I didn't want to find out.

All of a sudden, I saw a figure jump onto the mountain side behind Pete and race across like a ninja, dropping down in front of me. The creatures stopped moving forward as a new individual landed in between and me, their target.

"Huh?" I and Cat Dude said in surprise.

The person was Paine, and she had dropped down into a battle stance, her sword drawn and ready, long and thick, colored black with a thin sliver of silver at the edge.

I gasped in amazement. "Paine! You're here!" Words couldn't explain how thankful I was to her now. She rescued me from a terrible fate.

I couldn't see her face, but it looked like she had her eyes focused on Cat Dude. He scowled at her.

"I thought I saw someone prowling around the trails around here, someone who definitely wasn't from the Ronso Tribe. I followed him here. Looks like I got here just in time." Paine spoke a bit louder. "Hey dude," she spoke to the stranger, "you attack my friend, you gotta go through me. You got it?"

I knew from experience that Paine was no one you wanted to mess with. There was nothing but fearlessness in her voice. She was ready for anything.

Unfortunately for him, Cat Dude didn't get the memo. He growled, his eyes narrowing. "Heartless squad! Attack!" He pointed at Paine now.

The creatures launched themselves at Paine and she lunged forward. She looked like a pro, slashing through the foes like they were paper. They disappeared into puffs of darkness, much like they came. They were no match for her. Their weak attacks did nothing to deter her. She whirled around, defeating all the enemies in a matter of seconds.

Cat Dude was not happy at all, to say the least. "You…" He struggled to get the rest of his sentence due to his growing anger, his body trembling. "You're going to pay for that!" He shook his fist in the air angrily. "No one messes with the mighty Pete!" He stomped his feet like he was planning on becoming Paine's next foe.

She remained unimpressed. "Bring it on," she said simply.

"Don't leave us out!" I heard a voice come from behind Cat Dude. I looked up to see Yuna and Rikku jump across the mountain side much like Paine did and land in front of me, right next to Paine.

"Yuna! Rikku!" I exclaimed. I didn't expect to see them.

"More brats?" Cat Dude wondered.

Yuna took her guns out of her holsters and pointed them at Cat Dude. She fired a shot as his foot. He cried out, jumping.

"That's for attacking our friend." She fired another shot at his other foot. He cried out again.

"That's for tainting the sacredness of Mt. Gagazet." She fired another shot. Again, he cried.

"And that's for just being ugly," she smirked.

When Cat Dude recovered and composed himself, and seemed sure that Yuna wasn't going to fire any more shots, he growled indignantly. I thought he was going to charge at her, but he didn't. I saw him glance quickly at Paine and Rikku; he probably wasn't looking to take on three opponents. Instead, he just pointed a finger.

"You're going to pay for this! You haven't seen the last of me!" And he turned around and ran away.

Yuna, Rikku, and Paine relaxed their battle stances. "And stay out!" Rikku called after him.

Paine came over to me. "You ok?" She outstretched a hand towards me.

I grabbed it, getting to my feet. "Yeah, he just took me by surprise. Thanks for the help." She just smiled in reply.

"I wonder who he was," Yuna wondered. "I've never seen anyone like him before on Spira. And I've been to a lot of places."

I remembered what happened earlier today, when Cat Dude emerged from the dark portal. I decided not to let the others know that this wasn't my first time seeing him. Then I have to explain the portal and I still didn't know what it was. And it wasn't like much happened the first time I saw him. I only saw him for a few seconds. Besides, I had more things to worry about.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Later that night while the fading rays of sunlight fell across the land and the imminent nightfall was approaching, I sat by myself, the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth just a stone's throw from me. The others were somewhere else in the village. I told them I was going to be playing some games, but really I had gone to do some thinking by myself.

My mind was spinning as I recollected the events from today. First, there was the Cat Dude that emerged from the swirling portal, followed closely by the Sora boy. Cue him telling me about a past I used to have with him and some other people and me refusing to listen.

Then I ran into him later and he gave me more information, but still didn't convince me. I recalled the recurring dream I had been having about a mysterious person, and the clues pointed to him. And then there was an encounter with Cat Dude.

That was two people who seemed to know me. It couldn't be a coincidence. And they both knew each other, so there was a connection there between the three of us. And what Cat Dude said got me thinking.

He said that Sora had followed him through a "Corridor of Darkness". Was he referring to that dark gateway that he had come out from? And corridors were ways of getting to places, like hallways.

And Sora talked about other worlds. If that was the case, if there were other worlds out there, were these "Corridors of Darkness" used to get to them?

Sora talked about traveling to other worlds and fighting some things called "Heartless." And Cat Dude summoned a "Heartless squad." Which meant that Sora was right.

I held my head in my hands. What was going on?! This whole time I thought I was from somewhere in Spira, and it turns out I wasn't. I was from…what was the name of that place Sora mentioned? It was amazing how quickly I went from calling him spiky-haired boy to his real name.

Destiny Islands. That's what it was. It sounded like a tropical place. No wonder I liked playing in the hot springs so much. I probably played in the water a lot on the Islands.

So…what did that mean now? I put most of the pieces of the puzzle together. Was there one last thing that I needed to know to get all the proof I needed?

_"You can summon a Keyblade too. Just hold your hand out and summon it to you."_ Sora's voice rang in my head, clear as a bell.

Was that it? Was that what I needed to do? Test it out myself?

I slowly reached out my hand in front of me, tentatively, like I was expecting my hand to burst into flames or something. I don't know why I was so nervous. Maybe because if I did manage to summon a Keyblade, it would mean that my life would be changed forever, and not in the way I expected.

When my arm was completely straight, I stared at my hand and concentrated.

_Ok Kairi…just concentrate…visualize…and…_

There was a flash of light and an object appeared in my hand. My eyes bugged out.

There was a Keyblade in my hands. At least I think it was a Keyblade. It didn't look much like Sora's. It didn't even look harmful.

One side of the hilt was formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other formed a beige vine of sand that wrapped around the shaft, colored a deep shade of orange, like sunset. The vine connected to a bouquet of flowers, pink, purple and yellow, which made up the teeth of the weapon.

Looking closely, I saw that the flowers entwined to make a heart. A red silken keychain connected the hilt to a yellow and orange star-shaped object that I didn't recognize.

The whole thing looked really pretty, but…

I fought the forces of evil…using this?

It didn't look like much of a weapon. But if worked before, then I guess I shouldn't be questioning it.

I turned it this way and that, examining it. I got to my feet and swung it around. It actually felt kinda great. The Keyblade felt nearly lightless in my hand as I swiped it through the air.

"Ok," I breathed. "Now I'm a believer."

I suddenly heard muted noises of what sounded like a fight, coming from the cavern. My head perked up at the sound.

"Back off!" I heard someone say.

Hey, that was Sora's voice! And…it sounded like he was in trouble!

I don't know what happened. I don't even remember thinking about it. Yet as soon as I recognized Sora's voice, I found my feet running towards the cavern, without a second to lose.

_Wait a minute_, I said to myself as I pressed towards my destination. _Am I really going in there to fight when I just learned how to summon a Keyblade?_

I didn't have much of a choice. Sora sounded like he needed help. And I still owed him for earlier when I brushed him off.

I bounded into the cavern and I saw Sora on the other side against the wall, on his knees, his Keyblade at his side on the ground next to him. He was taking in deep breaths. Cat Dude was in front of him, his back facing me, with some of those Heartless creatures he summoned before next to him.

He threw his head back, laughing menacingly. "Ha ha ha! Sorry kid, but you're a few years too early to be taking on me!"

Sora glared daggers at his foe.

"Well then, why don't you take on me?" I found myself saying. _Way to throw yourself in there, Kairi._

"Huh?" Sora and Cat Dude both said at the same time. They looked at me, Cat Dude turning around in my direction.

Their eyes became wider when their eyes laid on me.

I think Sora was the most surprised. "Kairi?" His shocked expression then turned into relief, a smile on his face. "Kairi!" he repeated.

Cat Dude's eyes narrowed into slits. A low growl came from his throat. "It's you again," he spat. "I still owe you from last time."

"Isn't that what you said last time?" I smirked.

"You-"His face became furious and he began stomping on the ground angrily, grunting.

"Heartless! Attack!" He pointed his finger at me like last time.

Taking a deep breath, I charged forward. I don't know where the surge of confidence came from, but I suddenly felt like I could do anything. Like take out these creatures.

When the first Heartless came at me, I slashed my Keyblade to the side, destroying it. I moved about, slashing my Keyblade through each enemy. I was amazed at how easy it was. As I went through the motions, it felt…natural to me. As if I had been doing this for a long time. I think even Paine would be impressed with how I was doing.

When it was down to the last two Heartless, they jumped into the air at me. I tensed and jumped into the air too, higher than I would have thought possible, and did a spinning slash move where I hung my Keyblade out and spun around, hitting both Heartless in the swing. I lightly landed back on my feet, getting into a battle stance, ready if Cat Dude wanted some next.

He stared at disbelief at me before growling again. I was beginning to suspect this guy had some problems controlling his anger.

"You just wait," he said. "Nobody and I mean nobody, messes with the mighty Pete!"

"Well then, mighty Pete, how about you take the both of us on?" Sora asked tauntingly. He had gotten to his feet by now and lightly raced over to where I was, getting into a defensive stance next to me.

Cat Dude growled lowly. "I'm getting out of this world! I'll handle you pipsqueaks later!" And a tall, swirling portal of black and purple appeared behind him. Throwing us one last glare, he ran into it, it disappearing behind him.

Sora and I relaxed our battle stances. He turned to me, his face alight. "Kairi! You remember now!" He exclaimed.

I smiled a little. "Actually…I don't." I gazed down at the Keyblade still in my hand. "But I was able to summon this, so…I guess, you were telling the truth the whole time after all." I looked up at him, guiltily. "I'm sorry," I apologized.

Sora shook his head, still in a good mood. "Don't be. I knew you come around." A thoughtful look appeared on his face as he stared at the ground. "Though now, we have to get your memories back..." He looked back up at me. "I'm sure Yen Sid will know what to do once we get back to the Tower."

"Wait." I held up a hand. Sora looked at me somewhat curiously. "Before we do that, there's something I need to do before we leave."

"What is it?"

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"...so I used the Keyblade to defeat the Heartless and drive Cat Dude away."

I exhaled after I finished telling the others what happened since we left Mt. Gagazet, up to the point where I defeated Cat Dude. I also told them the information Sora had supplanted me earlier, mainly about the Keyblade and its workings.

The other stared back at me, shocked expressions on their face.

Yuna broke the silence a few seconds later. "Oh my gosh," she breathed.

"You said it," Rikku said.

Paine didn't say anything, just looked at me with slightly widened eyes. She didn't show emotion a lot, and when she did, it was somewhat subtle.

"I can't believe it," Yuna continued. "This whole time, you were from a different world. And not just that, you traveled to _other_ worlds. And fought against the forces of evil…" She shook her head slowly from side to side, as if she was having trouble believing it. "That's incredible..."

"Tell me about it," I said. I was still in shock myself, though most of it had already worn off. Still...

Yuna stood up from the ground. "So where is this mysterious boy?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean Sora?" I left him alone to go talk to Yuna and the others. I looked around the village, trying to find someone with brown spiky hair, using the moonlight as a light source. I found him talking to a vendor about something. What I didn't know, but they seemed to be in a casual conversation.

"He's over there," I pointed. Yuna looked him up and done, an appraising look on her face.

"Hmm-hmm." A sly smirk came onto her face and she nudged me playfully. "You know, he's kinda cute," she teased.

"Huh?" I said.

"Don't you think?"

I examined Sora's face. I never really noticed until now, but Sora wasn't too bad on the eyes, and he did have a pretty nice smile...

I shook my head, shaking the thoughts out of my head.

"I guess he's alright, I suppose," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

I noticed Rikku staring intently at him.

"I wanna go talk to him," she suddenly declared.

"What?" I wasn't expecting her sudden demand.

She started towards him. "I need to make sure he's ok to go with," she said as she strode her way over.

"Wait, Rikku!" I followed her.

Sora, who appeared to be done talking with the vendor, turned his head as we approached him.

"Hey. Sora, right?" Rikku asked, her arms over her chest. She peered at Sora, but in a more curious manner than in a rude manner.

"Yeah," he answered. "And you're...?"

"My name's Rikku."

Sora's eyes widened. "Really? My best friend is named Riku."

It was Rikku's turn to look surprised. "No way, really? Is she the same age as you?"

"Uh...Riku's a dude..."

Rikku tilted her head. "Wait, how does he spell his name?"

"R-I-K-U," Sora spelled out.

"Ohh," Rikku's face fell. "Mine is spelled R-I-K-K-U. Eh, it was close. Anyways, I came over here to check you out." She looked Sora up and down, though in a different way than how Yuna did earlier. It was similar to the way a father might scrutinize a boy that came over to his house to take his daughter out on a date.

Sora looked at me, a confused look in his eyes. I shrugged back. Rikku was many things, but subtle was not one of them.

"Okay," she said, done with her appraisal. "You pass inspection." She looked into Sora's eyes. "Kairi can go back with you."

"Uh...thanks?" Sora seemed to not know how to respond to that. I wonder what would have happened if Sora didn't pass Rikku's inspection.

I saw Yuna and Paine coming up to us.

"So...I guess this is it, huh?" Paine asked.

I turned to her, a little smile on my face. "Yeah, I guess it is." I looked at all the girls. "Thanks guys, for everything. I don't know what I do without you. I'm glad that you found me and I'm glad for the memories we had together. I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world."

"Awww," Rikku cooed, a wide grin on her face. "Group hug!" She opened her arms wide and engulfed Paine, Yuna, and me in a big hug.

"Ugh," I heard Paine say. "I don't do group hugs."

"Too bad, suck it up, Paine," Rikku responded. "Kairi's going away. Deal with it." Even though I couldn't see Paine's face, I could imagine that she was rolling her eyes.

When we broke apart, Yuna gave me a hug of her own, a big smile on her face.

"If you ever need anything, just find us. We'll be ready to lend a hand."

"Thanks," I replied. "I hope you guys find your ship and reunite with the rest of your accomplices."

"We will. Be careful out there, ok?" Yuna warned.

"Don't worry, I will," I assured her.

"And I know you'll find your memories." I smiled at that.

"Well...bye." She said, a little bit of sadness in her eyes as well as her voice.

I was sad too. Because I lost my memories, these guys were the only people I knew. I hated having to leave them behind, but now that I was on the path to finding out my true past, I couldn't turn away from the path. I had to go for it.

"Bye," I said. "Goodbye guys," I said to the group at large. "Thanks for everything."

Paine smiled at me then glanced up at the sky. "It's getting late. We should be getting inside." I guess Paine wasn't very good at this kind of thing, saying goodbye.

"Ok." Rikku said. She beamed at me. "Bye Kairi! Hope to see you soon! Bye Sora!" She added.

He reciprocated the smile. "Bye Rikku!"

After we finished our goodbyes (and after another group hug courtesy of Rikku), the girls departed, leaving me staring at their backs until I couldn't see them anymore. My heart sunk a little but I tried to keep positive. I would see them again.

I turned towards Sora, who had been patiently waiting while the others and I were saying goodbye to each other. "Ok, I guess we can go now." I suddenly realized something, something very important.

"Um, how are we getting off this world?"

Sora opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Realization seemed to dawn on him, if the look in his eyes was any clue.

"Uhhh..."

I heaved a sigh. "Oh dear..."

Sora closed his mouth, thinking now. "Let's see...how I got here..." He snapped his fingers. "Oh! I followed Pete through that Corridor of Darkness."

"So can you summon this Corridor and get us of here?"

Sora's mouth gaped. "Are you crazy? I can't summon Corridors of Darkness. It's why they're called Corridors of Darkness. You have to control darkness to use them. Which is an ability I don't have. Besides, they're dangerous to go through."

I furrowed my eyebrows at him. "Then why did you go through one?"

He scratched his head sheepishly. "Uh, well, I was being a little reckless. I forgot how dangerous Corridors can be. It's why I collapsed here in this world from exhaustion after I passed through one. They can really take a lot of you." He gazed at me. "But if I hadn't gone through it, I never would have found you, so I guess it all worked out." He smiled.

"Yes...but we're still stuck here," I said. Sora's face fell.

"Ohhh...right..." He shifted weight onto his other leg. He winced.

"Oww." He shifted the weight back. He looked down at his leg. "Hmm...I guess that fight earlier took too much from me." He looked up at me. "You wouldn't happen to have any potions or elixirs on you, would you?"

"Potions?" I thought about it. I knew Yuna and the others carried them, but I certainly didn't.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I don't have any."

Sora pouted. "None? You usually keep them in your pouch." He pointed to it. "What's in there?" He inquired.

I glanced down at my pouch. "I don't really stick anything in here," I replied, opening my pouch and taking out the contents. There was some tissue, two tiny bottles of water, and a small, blue star-shaped crystal with a ring of green around the center and a green star in the center. There was a green jagged lightning bolt emerging from the side.

I saw it in there a while ago but never took it out. I had absolutely no idea where it came from, but it was in my pouch since I woke up without my memories. It felt cold in my hands.

Sora gasped. "Is that King Mickey's Star Shard?"

"What?" I glanced down at the object. "You mean this thing?"

Sora gasped again. "Of course! It all makes sense now!" He looked as if he has just solved some big mystery. "That's how you ended up here; you used the King's Star Shard to come here, and one way another, lost your memories in the world. I was wondering how you ended up here. That explains it."

I examined the blue object in my hand. "You think that's what happened?"

"Of course. I can't think of anything else."

"Can we use this Star Shard thingie to get back?" I wasn't sure how this tiny little thing could be used as a transportation device, but if it got us where we needed to go, then I was all for it.

"Yeah. I know how to work it," he assured me, taking the Star Shard from me.

He held it up, turning it over, his forehead crinkling. "Now...how do you work this thing again?" I heard him say under his breath.

I shot him an amused glance. "I thought you said you knew how to use it."

"I do, I do! I never really used this thing, but the King told me how to work it. That was a while ago so cut me some slack...ok, so what I think you're supposed to do is imagine the place in your mind and say the name out loud. You don't remember how the Mysterious Tower looked so you can't do that part, so I'll do it for you." Sora explained. "Just hold on to the Shard too and you'll be transported with me." I held my hand out and touched the object.

I shrugged. That sounded simple enough. "Ok. I'm ready. Let's go."

"Ok then." Sora cleared his throat. "Mysterious Tower," he spoke in a clear voice.

Numerous splinters of light shot out from the crystal and a bright light enveloped us. I scrunched my eyes close, temporarily blinded by the dazzling light. A second later, my body felt lightless, like I was floating through air, and then not even a full second later, I felt my feet touching the ground. I slowly opened my eyes to see a new landscape; Sora and I were definitely not in Spira anymore.

The top half of the sky was a dark color, but beneath that was a color which looked like a faint mix of orange and yellow. Several stars gleamed in the strange-looking sky. There seemed to be large, yellow hills that seemed to be floating in a sea of dark orange. It was then that I realized the entire place was some kind of floating island. Giant shrubbery littered the ground, framing the pathway to what I assumed to be the Mysterious Tower.

The Tower was bent and crooked, and somehow I figured that it was fashioned like that on purpose. It was golden-brown with blue cone-shaped turret roofs, decorated with moons and stars. It loomed into the sky, forcing me to bend my head back to get a good look at it.

"Aww!" Sora groaned. "I wanted it to take us _inside_ the Tower. Now we have to walk up all those stairs… I guess I didn't use it properly."

I turned on the spot, trying to take this surrealistic place in. I noticed a glowing blue ethereal railway next to the island, hovering over the orange sea. I wondered where it came from, seeing no way of getting to this place.

Sora must have seen me staring at everything because he spoke from behind me, "Yeah, it's a lot to take in. I did the same thing when I first got here."

I faced him, pointing a finger at the railway. "Where does that railway come from?" I asked.

"The railway? Well another way to get here is to take a special train out of Twilight Town."

"Twilight Town..." I said to myself. "Sounds like a pretty interesting place."

"It is. We should go there once we get a chance later. Come on, I'll take you to Yen Sid. He's a really powerful sorcerer. He'll be able to help you get your memories back."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Me: Hmm…I don't really have anything to say here.

Sora: I do! How come you made me lose to Pete? I totally could have taken him on!

Me: *rolls eyes* It was for the story. And you didn't lose to Pete, you lost to his Heartless. Deal with it. I can always kill you off, you know.

Sora: *gasps* You can't do that! I'm too important to the storyline! You told me that.

Me: I can always switch things up.

Sora: *gasps*

Me: I'm just kidding, I won't kill you off. I like you too much. Plus then I'll have to rework some of the plot points, which I don't feel like doing.

Sora: *sighs in relief* Oh, thank you.

Me: Thanks for reading! Please subscribe and leave a review! Till next time!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


	4. It's Not Easy Being A Princess

Hello everybody! I may have said the next few chapters would becoming relatively quick since I had them planned out, but I decided to switch things up a bit and push some stuff back. The chapter didn't come as quick as I initially planned since I was working on another story, but a couple weeks isn't bad, right?

Kairi: Plus she has a lot of free time on her hands since she just recently quit her job.

Me: *gasps* Kairi, you here!

Kairi: Well I am the main character in the story after all, right?

Me: And I see Sora isn't…I'm surprised to see Riku isn't here. Where is he?

Kairi: I dunno. I haven't seen him in a while. He could be with Sora.

Me: Well I'll look for those two later. Would you care to do the honors?

Kairi: Of course! ElvenPrincess01 does not own any of the franchises used in the story. Enjoy!

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Previous Chapter_

_I turned on the spot, trying to take this surrealistic place in. I noticed a glowing blue ethereal railway next to the island, hovering over the orange sea. I wondered where it came from, seeing no way of getting to this place._

_Sora must have seen me staring at everything because he spoke from behind me, "Yeah, it's a lot to take in. I did the same thing when I first got here."_

_I faced him, pointing a finger at the railway. "Where does that railway come from?" I asked._

_"The railway? Well another way to get here is to take a special train out of Twilight Town."_

_"Twilight Town..." I said to myself. "Sounds like a pretty interesting place."_

_"It is. We should go there once we get a chance later. Come on, I'll take you to Yen Sid. He's a really powerful sorcerer. He'll be able to help you get your memories back."_

**Chapter 4: It's Not Easy Being A Princess**

I looked back up at the sky. "What time of day is it over here? It was nighttime when we left Spira."

"It's still nighttime, "Sora explained. "The sky never changes so you can't really depend on it for accurate time."

"Ah, I see."

"Sora! Where the heck have you been?" I heard a deep male voice call out. It sounded like it was coming from near the Tower, though from my position, I couldn't see the owner, the thick trees blocking my view. Sora could however.

He scratched the back of his head nervously, grinning. "Sorry, I got a...bit tied up." He suddenly gasped, throwing a glance my way. "Riku! Guess who I found!" He said in obvious excitement.

"Who? Santa Claus? Because he put me on the naughty list again last Christmas."

Sora shook his head. "No, Kairi!"

"What?" Riku said quietly.

"Kairi," Sora called out to me, motioning with his head for me to come closer.

I walked to him and my eyes fell on a boy standing near the steps to the Tower. He was tall, much taller than Sora, with shoulder-length white hair. He looked to be a little older than Sora and me and was somewhat muscular.

He wore a sleeveless, black, double-zippered shirt under a white vest. The white vest was yellow at the bottom with a blue stripe separating the two other colors. On his left arm he wore a loose white cloth that reached a little bit above his fingers and up between his wrist and elbow.

His blue baggy pants had very large, paler pockets, and were held up by a black and silver belt. His white shoes were gray on the bottom and top, with three black stripes on each side and yellow shoelaces.

_So this is Riku_, I thought. Apparently according to Sora, we were best friends, though I had no recollection of him. I still didn't recognize him.

I smiled and gave a little wave of my hand at him. "Hi," I simply said.

Riku just stared at me before striding forward, his long legs quickly covering the distance between us.

He grinned. "Man, I don't believe it. Kairi, you're back! You have no idea how long we've been looking for you. Sora was moping for days."

"I was not!" Sora defended.

"Whatever," Riku rolled his eyes. I giggled. I could definitely tell they were best friends.

"Where have you been?" Riku asked me. "And how come you haven't come back?"

"I was in Spira. And...I kind of lost my memories."

Riku looked at me, confusion on his face. "What?"

"I landed in Spira a few weeks ago without any of my memories, so I had no clue about-" I waved my hand in the air, looking around- "any of this. If it wasn't for Sora finding me, "I shrugged my shoulders, "I probably would have still been there searching for my lost memories."

Saying that out loud to Riku made me realize that. If Sora had never arrived in Spira...how long would it have been before I started to get clues to my past? Would I have ever learned the truth?

"So...when you say you lost your memories..."

Riku realized the truth before I even said it. I smiled sadly. "I don't remember you at all. Sorry," I added.

Riku continued to look at me before shifting his weight and crossing his arms over his chest. "Huh. So you don't remember...anything?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"She doesn't remember you or me, the King, Yen Sid, or anyone else for that matter," Sora added. "And she lost all her memories of our past missions together to other worlds."

Riku's eyes widened. "She forgot that much?"

Sora nodded slowly.

Riku scratched his head. "Well this _is_ a problem..."

"I was thinking Yen Sid could help. He's the only solution I could think of."

Riku thought about this. "We can try. Though I'm not sure if Yen Sid's magic is strong enough to restore lost memories."

"Don't worry; Yen Sid's a really powerful sorcerer. He'll know what to do."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Yen Sid's study room had light brown walls with blue at the top of them. Bookshelves stacked with books positioned around the room. There was a chalkboard to one side and pottery items like vases littered the room. Large star-shaped windows showed the strange-looking sky in the distance. There was a long wooden desk in the middle of the room, with a skull in one corner. Yen Sid sat in a tall grand chair behind the table.

He was an elderly-looking man with a long gray beard and extremely thick gray eyebrows to match. He was dressed in a long blue, flowing robe with wide flowing sleeves. He studied me as I stood in front of the table with stern eyes, a small frown on his face.

I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be looking, so I just looked around the room, waiting for the sorcerer to finally say something. It was making me a little uncomfortable with him looking at me like that.

After what seemed like an eternity later, he finally spoke. "I'm afraid I don't know what to do," he said in a deep gravelly voice.

My eyes flashed to him. "What?"

Sora walked forward. "You meant you can't bring back her memories?"

He sat back in his chair. "I'm deeply apologetic Kairi, but…I don't have the means to restore your memories. It's out of my power. I can do many things…but restoring memories isn't one of them."

Well that sucked. Sora sighed from next to me. "Aww man, I really thought it was going to work…" Sora pouted, sticking out his lower lip. He looked like a little kid. I smiled. "It's ok, Sora," I reassured him. "We'll…just have to find something else."

Sora knitted his brows, thinking about something. He gasped, snapping his fingers. "Hey, what about Merlin?" He asked, looking at me.

"Who?" I asked.

"Oh right, you forgot. Merlin's a wizard who resides in Hollow Bastion. His magic is pretty powerful."

"I don't know, Sora," Riku spoke up, removing himself from the wall and coming towards us. "If Yen Sid couldn't get the job done, it's possible Merlin can't do it either."

"Hey, we have to do everything we can to get Kairi her memories back! If there's a possibility, we should go for it," Sora declared, his eyes shining with determination. It didn't seem like he was willing to give up so quickly.

Riku opened his mouth so say something but Yen Sid beat him to it. "You should go to Hollow Bastion and talk to Merlin. Perhaps he can be of help."

Riku sighed. "Alright. I guess it can't hurt."

"I'll bring your Gummi ship around." Yen Sid snapped his fingers and I saw something in my peripheral. I turned to see something floating outside one of the windows. It looked like some kind of ship. I guessed it must have been the Gummi ship.

"Thanks, Yen Sid. We'll be back," Sora said, before leaving the room, Riku following after him.

I followed after them until Yen Sid called my name. "Yes?" I turned around.

"Kairi," he started. "Whether or not you get your memories back…there's something I need to talk to you about…" He viewed me with steady eyes.

That didn't seem too good to me. It sounded troubling from the way he said it. I suddenly felt a little nervous.

"Yes sir," I nodded before leaving the room.

Sora, Riku, and I walked down the seemingly endless flight of stairs that we climbed up to get to Yen Sid's tower. Walking up them was a struggle, but walking down was a walk in the park. My legs didn't scream in pain as much.

Sora and Riku told me stories about our past adventures as we descended. I asked them how we ended up with Keyblades in the Heartless-hunting business in the first place. They told me that when we were little, Sora and Riku were on the beach one day when three strange men appeared, with me in tow. Sora and Riku said the details were a little hazy because we were so little, but the men held strange weapons in their hands, which were later assumed to be Keyblades.

The men told me to find someone who could take care of me, leaving me in their care. After that was settled, the men performed the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony on us, though we didn't know what it was at the time. The three men then left the Islands, never to return again.

I was adopted by the mayor of Destiny Islands and I lived a normal life, hanging out with Sora and Riku, who became my best friends, and other islanders around our age, Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Our encounter with the strangers became a distant memory of the past that we mostly forgot about. We didn't even remember what they looked like. Until a mouse by the name of King Mickey arrived in Destiny Islands.

Or crash-landed I should say. He was testing out a new Gummi ship model and he lost control of it, it transporting him accidentally to a brand-new world. Sora, Riku, and I were on the beach when we saw some kind of aircraft fly out of the sky and land on the other side of the beach where we were swimming.

We quickly ran over to see if anyone was hurt and offer some assistance when we saw a two-foot tall anthropomorphic talking mouse emerge from the aircraft relatively unscathed, thanks to some "magic" he had. After making sure he was ok, he asked us what world he was in.

He then noticed that we had the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony performed on us, and told us of his mission, his journey of traveling to various worlds and destroying the Heartless threat there. He told of us of Heartless, of Keyblades, of distant worlds that we knew nothing about.

This excited Riku, who was eager to travel to different worlds and see what was out there. Mickey saw that we had strong hearts and asked us if we would join in his quest. Riku quickly agreed, and Sora did soon after, though apparently I was a little hesitant.

These Heartless creatures scared me a little, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave the comfort of my island home for such a dangerous adventure. Still, the thought of seeing new worlds fascinated me a little, and after some persuasion from Sora and Riku, I decided to join in.

Thankfully, the Gummi ship Mickey was riding in was surprisingly not damaged much, the King managing to slow it down considerably before it crashed into the sand. Two squirrels named Chip and Dale, the ship's engineers, made some minor repairs, and we were on our way, but not before grabbing some necessities from our homes.

Our destination was the Mysterious Tower. Once there, Mickey began our training, teaching us first how to summon our Keyblades. When we learned that, we moved into the real training, swordplay and magic. Sora and Riku excelled at swordplay, since they grew up fighting each other with wooden swords. I never really played with swords, so I was a bit slower in picking up the techniques, but I eventually got the hang of it.

On the other hand, I was really good with magic. Yen Sid, who helped us with our training, praised my talent for magic, saying that I had a lot of potential.

Our training lasted for weeks, but we finally reached a level where Mickey thought we were ready to go into battle. Again, I was a bit nervous, but I still wanted to do it. The four of us traveled to many different worlds on our quest.

In the beginning, Mickey traveled with us in the Gummi ship, to provide assistance since we were still pretty new to fighting Heartless. But after a while, when we started becoming more and more skilled with our Keyblades, he stopped coming with us, and went on separate missions to other worlds.

Our battle against the forces of evil pitted us against some really strong enemies, but we were able to defeat them all through our teamwork. We had some run-ins with Pete aka Cat Dude and the evil fairy he was working for, Maleficent, who was trying to raise a Heartless army, but we stopped her each time.

"Whoooaaaa," I said in awe, trying to process all this information. "We really did a lot." It saddened me to think I forgotten all about this. It seemed like the three of us had some pretty awesome times.

"Yeah, we did," Sora agreed. "Hard to believe it's been several months, though. Time goes by so fast."

We finally went down the last flight of stairs and outside. The sky hadn't changed at all, just like Sora had said.

Sora and Riku walked towards where the Gummi ship was. I was wondering how we were supposed to get inside it with it floating in mid-air, but as we approached it, it descended slowly to the ground.

It was made out of geometrical shaped parts with wings on the sides and a pointy structure coming out the front of it. There was a blue, raised, globe-shaped structure on top of the ship, which I assumed to be the cockpit. The ship was colored blue, dark orange, and white.

"You guys use the Gummi Ship instead of the Star Shard for going to other worlds?"

"Yep," Sora responded. "The Star Shard is a quicker form of transport, but it can be hard to control at times. Better not to risk it. Speaking of which, I really need to get this Star Shard back to the King." A thought dawned on him. "Say, where is the King?" He asked Riku, facing him. "I haven't seen him."

"He went back to Disney Castle to check on Queen Minnie and things. He'll most likely be back soon."

"Oh, ok."

The Gummi ship was a lot more spacious inside than I thought. In the cockpit, there were three chairs and a long control panel that was used to control the ship, along with the steering wheel.

"Cool," I noted, looking around the place. "Who's driving?"

Sora opened his mouth but Riku cut him off, saying, "I am."

"Hey, why can't I drive?" Sora complained.

"Do you remember the last time you flew the Gummi Ship?" Riku asked, walking towards the control panel and taking a seat in the middle chair. "Cause I do."

Sora pouted. "I only crashed the Gummi ship once."

"Thrice," Riku corrected. "You crashed the Gummi ship three times."

"Whatever," Sora retorted. "Let's just go to Hollow Bastion." I could tell he was still disappointed that he couldn't drive the ship.

"So what's Merlin like?" I asked, taking a seat.

"Merlin? Oh, he's a cool guy. And very helpful. I'm sure he'll know what to do."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Once again I found myself being examined, though by a different person. Merlin peered at me through his circular spectacles, making humming noises as he looked at me which way and that, stroking his beard and asking questions every once in a while.

He was a pale elderly looking man, with a long white beard that stretched all the way to the floor. I'd never seen a beard that long. He had a large nose and small black eyes. Just like Yen Sid, he had bushy eyebrows, though his were white instead of gray.

He had short, white, balding hair on the sides of his head, which was covered by a tall, floppy, conical hat. On his body was a sky blue coat with wide sleeves.

We were all inside Merlin's cottage, a spacious room with a large, on-the-wall computer, stacks of books scattered all around the floor, a large chalkboard, and dressers. Sora told me earlier that the computer was used by the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee for the town's security system. I would have to ask more questions about that later.

After a couple minutes of the examination, Merlin gasped, standing straight up. "I've got it!"

Sora, Riku and I perked up. "You do?" We all chorused.

"Yes, it all makes perfect sense now," Merlin replied, stroking his beard again before raising his index finger in the air. "Kairi has lost her memories!" He announced as if he made a very important discovery.

Sora, Riku and I stared at Merlin for a few seconds in varying expressions of disbelief. If this was an anime, this would probably be the moment in which we sweat-dropped.

Riku broke the silence by slapping a hand to his forehead and letting out a sigh. "Merlin," he groaned. "We already knew Kairi lost her memories. We were kind of hoping you would be able to _restore_ them."

"Ahhh," Merlin said in realization. "Well I'm afraid I don't know how to do that." Riku sighed again.

Well there went two strong magic-users who couldn't restore my memories. It looked getting them back would be a lot harder than I thought.

"Then…what do we do now?" Sora thought aloud.

"Hmm…I haven't the slightest," Merlin replied. "But perhaps it would be best for Kairi to meet people from her past in order to…jog her memories."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Seeing the faces of people you once knew might reawaken your forgotten memories."

"You'd think it work?"

Merlin stroked his beard. "It may, and it may not. But, I was just recently in the Beast's Castle talking to Belle, and it seems that she misses you. She said it's been a while that last time she saw you."

"Other princesses?" I repeated. I was friends with princesses? I had no idea I was acquainted with royalty.

"I can take you there myself," Merlin offered. "It'll only be a second."

"Oh, well…" My eyes drifted towards Sora and Riku. Riku did a little motion with his head. "Go on ahead. Sora and I will take the Gummi ship back to the Tower."

"Right." I nodded. "I'll be back soon."

"Say hi to Belle for us!" Sora beamed. "And I hope this works." He smiled warmly.

I smiled back. I was really glad for Sora. He was really determined to help me get my memories. Just like…

The faces of Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had popped up into my mind. It was the first time I thought about them since I had left Spira. I was already missing them. I hated to leave them.

My sadness must have been evident on my face, because Sora frowned. "Are you ok?"

"Huh?" I smiled. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing. I'll see you guys later, ok?"

"Ok. See you!" And with that, Sora and Riku left the cottage, on their way to the Gummi ship.

I turned to Merlin. "Alright, I'm ready."

"Excellent! Now just stand still and…"

The teleportation was so quick, I barely even saw it happen. Unlike how with the Star Shard, there were splinters of light which formed into a bright wall of light that encased the users, and a second of floating, Merlin's teleportation technique was instantaneous. One second we were in his cottage, the next were in what I assumed to Beast's Castle, a cloud of white smoke surrounding us which quickly evaporated.

We were standing in a spacious room with high ceilings and four stone columns that rose to meet them. There were statues around the room and a staircase with a long, red tapestry on it that led up to a large green door. There were two staircases on either side, winding up to where my eye couldn't see.

The room had an old, historical style to it and I could tell it was pretty old, perhaps hundreds of years.

I suddenly heard footsteps and my head turned towards the staircase. A second later, a girl came into view, approaching from the staircase on the right. She beamed at me as she ran down the last flight of stairs before her feet reached the floor of the foyer.

"Kairi!" She exclaimed. She looked to be around the same age as me, wearing a blue top that exposed her arms and stomach and blue, long and poufy bustle pants, gold slippers on her feet, gold sports earrings, and a gold necklace around her neck. Her thick, black hair was tied into a braid going down her back, accompanied by a headband with a sapphire in the center set in a gold frame.

Before I could react, I was gripped in a tight embrace. When the girl pulled away, she smiled at me.

"Oh Kairi, it's so good to see you! Sora had come to Agrabah a while ago, looking for you since he said you went missing, but I'm so glad you're ok." She smiled. She was really pretty, her smile lightening up her face.

For some reason, I could…sense something from her. I couldn't explain it, but I could just sense some…light radiating from her.

"Uhh…" I started, not sure what to say to her. I wondered if this was one of the Princesses Merlin mentioned earlier. Judging from the gold she was wearing and how expensive it looked, I wouldn't put it past me if she was royalty.

Her eyes flashed to Merlin. "Oh, hello Merlin. How are you?"

"Good, good." He replied. "Things are good in the palace, I hope?"

The black-haired beauty nodded. "Hmm-hmm. It's been pretty quiet lately, which is good, because it gives Aladdin and me more time to plan for our upcoming wedding." She turned back to me, taking my hands in hers. "I already got the bridesmaid dresses picked out. You're going to look _so_ cute in it," she squealed.

"Err…" I started again.

The girl cocked her head at me. "What? What's the matter?"

"Well…you see…I… lost all my…memories," I admitted.

The girl looked puzzled. "What?" She looked at Merlin for an explanation.

"I'm afraid it's the truth, Jasmine. Kairi has no memories prior to a few weeks ago. She appears to have lost them all in a foreign world she ended up on."

"So…" Jasmine looked at me with sadness in her dark brown eyes. "You don't remember me?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't. But you look extremely familiar. But that's it."

Jasmine didn't say anything for a few seconds then suddenly burst out, "Oh, this is terrible! I can't believe you lost all your memories! How will you get them back?"

"Well, Merlin believes that meeting people from my past might, you know," I shrugged, "jog up some lost memories. He suggested that I see the other Princesses."

Jasmine gasped in excitement. "Perfect! The others are already here. Cinderella, Snow White, the whole bunch. We're in the dining room. I was just walking around for a few minutes to stretch my legs when I saw you from atop the staircase. I was going to head back now."

I heard a strange humming noise and saw that Merlin's wand had lit up and was flashing.

"Oh dear! I've just realized I'm late for a very important appointment. I'm going to have to leave you, Kairi."

"Oh…then, about getting back…?" I started. I no longer possessed the Star Shard and I couldn't teleport myself back like Merlin could.

"That's ok," Jasmine said. "The Fairy Godmother brought Cinderella and everyone else here. I 'm sure she can take Kairi back later."

"Splendid! Well then, I best be on my way. Goodbye, Kairi, and goodbye, Jasmine. It was nice to see you again." And with that, Merlin disappeared, just how we appeared, in a flash.

I faced Jasmine. "So you're a princess?" I asked. "That must be cool."

"Yes. And so are you."

Wait, what? My eyes widened in shock. Me? A princess?! Why wasn't I aware of this detail earlier? And just what place was I the princess of? I was the adopted daughter of the mayor on Destiny Islands. That was a long shot from princess, the last time I checked.

"W-w-what?" I stuttered.

"Well, not an _actual_ princess," Jasmine explained. "A Princess of Heart."

I stared blankly at her. The confusion could not be more evident on my face. "A Princess of what?"

Jasmine opened her mouth, and then closed it. "The others and I will explain in the dining room."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Walking into the dining room, I was immediately "attacked" by five other women who rushed over to my side, choking the life out of me with their hugs.

There was a blonde girl who appeared to be a little younger than me, dressed in a simple blue dress, white tights and Mary Janes. The four others were clearly young women, older than Jasmine and I.

There was a young, pale but sweet-looking woman with short black hair and red lipstick named Snow White. Another woman had brown hair pulled back into a bun tied back with a blue ribbon that matched her outfit named Belle.

There was another woman with fair skin and long blonde hair, though darker than Alice, and blue eyes; she was called Cinderella, or Ella for short. And the last person was an intelligent-looking woman with indigo-colored eyes and waist-length blonde hair named Aurora.

All five of the women wore dresses, though with differing styles. I could see why they were princesses.

After the greetings were done and over, Jasmine explained to the group that I had lost my memories. They were shocked to say the least.

"Oh, this _is_ terrible!" Belle lamented, a deep frown on her face that didn't seem to match her bright personality. "You mean to tell me you forgot all the times we had tea together?"

I nodded my head. Belle sighed deeply.

"But…you'll be able to get them back…right?" Alice asked, hopeful.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. I was hoping seeing you guys would help me get my memories, but-"I looked around at their faces-"I got nothing. You guys wouldn't happen to have any solutions, would you?"

The girls all looked around at each other. Aurora shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we don't have anything from my world that can restore memories."

"Nor do I," Snow White said.

"Me neither," Alice said.

"Sorry, me neither," Jasmine spoke.

"No, I won't be able to help either," Cinderella said.

Belle exhaled again. "And I don't have anything either." She stared hard at the floor before her eyes looked up to meet mine. "I wish there was something more we could do." Her eyes expressed regret.

I waved my hands in the air. "No, no, don't beat yourself over it. I'll eventually get my memories back. I suppose it'll just take my time."

I remembered something from the conversation Jasmine and I had in the foyer.

"Hey, can you explain to me this 'Princesses of Heart' thing? And why I'm a Princess?"

"Of course!" Belle exclaimed. "But I think the story would go best with some tea. It's getting cold."

After we all had sat down around the dining table with our tea, Belle cleared her throat, beginning to speak.

"Ok, so technically speaking, the only real princesses in this room are Jasmine, Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White. Jasmine is the daughter of a sultan, and Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White married princes."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes. Though I suppose I'll be considered a princess when Adam and I get married eventually. You and Alice are pretty much normal girls who don't exactly come from royalty."

"Then how we did get to become Princesses of Heart?"

"We don't exactly know," Aurora answered. "And we were Princesses of Heart from birth, before Ella, Snow and I got married."

"But we do know that Princesses of Heart are beings with hearts devoid of darkness in their hearts. It's nothing but pure light."

"Pure light?"

"Yep," Jasmine spoke. "It means that you can't be corrupted by the darkness. You can't be turned evil. You also get some abilities with it."

"Abilities?" That perked my attention.

"Hmm-hmm. Because we're essentially light, we can sense darkness, push it away physically, and upgrade powers. Like make magic spells stronger."

"Wow. That sounds pretty useful." That pushing darkness away ability seemed like it would come in handy a lot.

"There's a legend in a book that discusses the topic of the Princesses of Heart and their nature," Cinderella stated. "I've never actually seen it, but apparently it says that the pure hearts of the Princesses can be sensed, though I believe only by someone with a very strong heart. I don't think it's something anyone can detect."

"Who wrote this book?" I questioned.

Cinderella didn't have an answer. "That's unknown. The book doesn't have a name on it. The author it seems didn't want his or her name to be known."

"And unfortunately, being the Princesses of Heart has put us in danger before," Snow White murmured.

Belle nodded her head slowly. "Over ten years ago, when we were much younger, this man kidnapped us from homes, except for you. We were taken somewhere far from home, where the man revealed our identity as Princesses of Heart and said he would be using our hearts to achieve something."

"Achieve what?" This story was getting good.

"I don't know. He never said. He never even told us his name. He had us locked up while he went looking for you."

"Me?" I pointed to myself as if "you" could possibly refer to someone else.

"He said he needed one more piece to fit the puzzle," Aurora said. "You were still out there somewhere, and he needed all the Princesses for his plan to work. I believe he went traveling to different worlds to try and find you. He had done blind searches to find us. He didn't know our names or what world we would be in. He had no choice but to journey to a random world and look around for the appropriate maiden."

"While he was gone, we managed to escape. It was then that we were found by Mickey who had crash-landed his ship on the world where we were at."

"Again?" I said to myself. What was with Sora and Mickey and crashing Gummi ships? However it seemed that Mickey had a better track record than Sora.

"He naturally knew that were Princesses of Heart and we told him what happened. We escaped in his ship."

"Luckily, you were never found, obviously," Jasmine said. "We went into hiding after our return to our worlds, but the mystery man never came back for us. Either that, or we were just really good at lying low."

"Hmm…" I thought aloud. "I wonder why…"

"We'll never know," Cinderella spoke. "And I'm fine with that. I don't ever want to be kidnapped again." She shuddered.

"What did he look like?"

"We don't know," Snow White replied. "He wore a black coat and never showed us his face. We don't know much about him."

"So, how was it figured out that I was a Princess of Heart?" I asked.

"King Mickey told you." Belle answered. "And when you visited our worlds for the first time, we automatically knew. I guess us fellow Princesses can sense another in our presence. It was after that we started doing tea with each other every once in a while. You brought us together. Before that, the last time we had seen each other was when we were kidnapped."

I was amazed. "I did all that?"

"Of course." Aurora smiled. "You're a very charismatic person."

"Oh, well, thanks," I smiled back.

"Now enough talk about kidnappings and what not," Belle declared. "Let's have some fun!"

The seven of us sat around, reminiscing on old memories, or in my case "relearning" my memories.

After a while, we decided to call it quits. Cinderella summoned her Fairy Grandmother, a round elderly woman in a cloak and hood, who transported us back to our home worlds, Belle staying in the castle since she lived there.

I was the last to go. "Where to, dearie?" The Fairy Godmother kindly asked me.

"The Mysterious Tower, please. "

"That I can do." She waved her wand through the air and the next thing I knew, I was standing in the main room on the first floor which the main door of the Tower led to, the staircase looming in front of me.

I groaned. "Oh shoot. I should have asked her to take me to Yen Sid's study." I sighed, shuffling over to the staircase. "Oh well, a little exercise won't kill me," I said to myself as I placed my foot on the first step.

When I got to the top of the staircase out of breath and huffing and puffing, I took several moments to catch my breath and compose myself before I entered Yen Sid's study.

Yen Sid was in there, as well as Sora and Riku, but there was someone else in there. Taking one glance at him, I knew he was the King I had heard so much about. His round ears were a dead giveaway. He was a mouse after all.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. "Kairi! You're back!" Sora said with glee.

"Hey," I greeted, still a little breathless from my tiring ascent up the stairs.

"Did it…work?" Riku asked, almost like he was a little afraid to ask the question.

I could only shake my head, visibly upsetting him and Sora.

Mickey smiled up at me. "It's good to see ya again, Kairi," he said.

Mickey was barely over two feet tall, with black fur and a long tail. The top half of his jacket was black, while the bottom half was red, with two yellow straps dangling in front of it. His pants were red with a zipper going down the front of each leg.

Each leg also had a yellow pouch with a black strap that partially covered the zipper, as well as a blue strap on the outer side of each pant leg. The mouse king wore very large, yellow shoes with grey backs and two orange, intersecting straps attached to the front of each shoe.

This was the individual that recruited Sora, Riku and me from the islands and trained us to use Keyblades. He looked too innocent to be a fighter, but then I suppose the same thing could be said for me.

"Hi, er, sorry, but I don't-"

"You don't have to explain. I was already filled in on the situation by the others."

"Oh." I let out a relieved sigh. "Good. I 've had to do a lot of explaining today."

I noticed Yen Sid at his desk. "So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked him, approaching him.

"Yes. I had a couple questions to ask you."

"What is it?"

"When you were in Spira…did you encounter any Heartless or other enemies?" He asked.

"No…the only time I saw them was the day I was reunited with Sora. But in the entire time I was in the world, I didn't see any Heartless. Why?"

"As a Keyblade wielder, it makes you a potential target for Heartless, which are attracted to strong hearts. Though it seems that the world hadn't been touched by the darkness and Heartless, so you would have been fine."

"At first when you disappeared, I feared that you had kidnapped by the same man who kidnapped the princesses ten years ago. But I see that is not the case."

"Yeah, Belle and the others kind of filled me in on that whole thing."

"My other question is: you've lost all your memories, correct?"

"Hmm-hmm."

"Then that brings up the issue I've really wanted to address. If you've lost all your memories, then that should mean you lost your memories as a Keyblade wielder. This means we may have to start all over from the beginning in regaining your Keyblade abilities again."

"Is that so?" Mickey asked.

"I'm afraid it might be." Yen Sid responded in his deep voice.

"Hey, when Kairi and I were in that Spira world and she fought against Pete and his Heartless, I think she did pretty good, considering the circumstances," Sora offered generously. I didn't think I did _that_ great, but then again, I did defeat all the enemies. "I don't think she completely forgot everything."

"Hmm…" Mickey crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the floor, thinking." It might be muscle memory," Mickey thought aloud. "Her body is probably so used to the motions that it can do them even when the brain has seemed to forget them…" Mickey glanced up at me. "Can ya do any magic spells?"

An expression of astonishment appeared on my face. "I can do magic spells?!" No one told me this either. I speculated what kind of magic I could do. I wondered if I could teleport like Merlin. That would be pretty convenient.

"I guess that's a no then," Riku muttered.

"What do we do then?" Mickey asked Yen Sid, worry in his voice.

The sorcerer thought about it for several seconds. "Kairi, Sora and Riku were supposed to take their Mark of Mastery exams before Kairi's disappearance, but Kairi will be unable to do hers now in her condition."

"What does that mean?" Sora asked.

Yen Sid thought some more, interlocking his fingers in front of him and resting his chin on them.

"One week." He finally declared. "One week for Kairi to get some training, just enough to make her proficient in battle. The exams will have to be postponed of course…unless Sora or Riku want to do theirs now."

I thought that Sora and Riku would opt to take their exams now. I shouldn't be in the way of their wishes. So I was pleasantly surprised when they said no.

"No. Not until Kairi gets her memories back." He announced. "We all go in together."

"Very well, then. We'll all work with Kairi to retrain her. After the one week is over, you will be sent to different worlds to combat the Heartless there. A week is too short for my liking, but unfortunately- "Yen Sid's eyes narrowed- "time is a luxury we can't afford. Darkness is already spreading to new worlds and more and more Heartless are cropping up. We can't waste any more time. We have to make Kairi's training as efficient as possible in the short time we have."

"When do we start?" I asked. I wasn't sure how much training we would be able to fit into a week. Sora and Riku told me earlier that when we first started off as Keyblade wielders, it had taken us weeks before Mickey thought we were ready. I could already sense long days ahead.

"Tomorrow. A good night's sleep would be beneficial for everyone to refresh themselves."

"Alright," I nodded. "I'll be ready for tomorrow." Let the training begin.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Wow, that was kind of a long chapter. I didn't realize it would be so long when I first started, but as I got deeper and deeper into the chapter, I was like, "this is going to be a lengthy chapter." I guess it's kind of a good thing since I noticed that the previous chapters were relatively short. The chapters will be getting "meatier" though…I think.

The three men mentioned earlier that brought Kairi to the Islands will be brought up later in the story, though much later, so don't forget about them. Also the man that kidnapped the Princesses too.

Also, can anyone tell me how to put borders for to break up parts of the story instead of zeros? I would like to do a border because it looks better, but when I upload the chapter, the borders don't appear. I've seen them done in other stories and I would like to know how to do them. Ok, that's it.

Sora: Why did you have to put the bit about me crashing the Gummi ship in there?

Me: Because it happened?

Sora: I happen to be an expert pilot.

Kairi: Expert pilots don't crash ships.

Sora: Kairi! You're supposed to be on my side!

Riku: She's right, though.

Sora: *grumbles incoherently*

Me: Well that's a wrap folks! Thanks for reading! Please subscribe and leave a review! Till next time!


	5. Back to the Basics

Wow, I must be on a roll as of late. I only updated the story a few days ago, and now I'm updating again. Well I did have a lot of inspiration for this story and once I got started, I found it hard to finish. Stayed up to two in the morning to finish it and I had class the next day. But that aside, Kairi's going to be starting her training and-

Sora: Sorry to interrupt, but have you seen my hair gel? I can't find it anywhere.

Me: Er, hair gel? You use hair gel?

Sora: Of course. *runs fingers through hair* You think I get these fabulous-looking spikes naturally?

Me: Well, I was kind of under that impression, yes.

Sora: Anyways, have you seen it around? It's in a clear jar with a black lid.

Me: No, I have not. But since you're here, care to do the disclaimer?

Sora: Leave it to me! ElvenPrincess01 does not, I repeat DOES NOT own Kingdom Hearts.

Me: But I do own these Skittles! *chews happily* Enjoy!

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_Previous Chapter_

"_Very well, then. We'll all work with Kairi to retrain her. After the one week is over, you will be sent to different worlds to combat the Heartless there. A week is too short for my liking, but unfortunately- "Yen Sid's eyes narrowed- "time is a luxury we can't afford. Darkness is already spreading to new worlds and more and more Heartless are cropping up. We can't waste any more time. We have to make Kairi's training as efficient as possible in the short time we have."_

"_When do we start?" I asked. I wasn't sure how much training we would be able to fit into a week. Sora and Riku told me earlier that when we first started off as Keyblade wielders, it had taken us weeks before Mickey thought we were ready. I could already sense long days ahead. _

"_Tomorrow. A good night's sleep would be beneficial for everyone to refresh themselves."_

"_Alright," I nodded. "I'll be ready for tomorrow." Let the training begin._

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Chapter 5: Back to the Basics**

Riku stretched his arms over his head, his mouth opening in a long yawn. A sleepy look had entered his eyes and he looked tired.

"I need some sleep. It's been a long day." He turned to leave. "Night." And with that, he was out the door.

"Master Yen Sid," King Mickey spoke. "About this darkness spreading…do ya sense anything?"

Yen Sid's face became grave. "It's hard to say…I'm not sure what is happening, but I can sense dark forces at work. Something is being plotted. That much I can tell."

I wondered about these "dark forces" at work and became a little frightful inside. They sounded really strong if Mickey and Master Yen Sid were so worried about them. I was uncertain of how ready I would be after my week of training. It wouldn't do me any good if I was unprepared.

"Don't worry, we'll handle them," Sora said proudly, puffing his chest out. If only I had Sora's courage.

A smile appeared on the King's face, as well as a tiny one on Yen Sid. "I expected to hear such words from you, Sora. But try not to become too hasty and rush into danger. It may be your downfall."

"But enough about that," he continued, all the seriousness disappearing from his voice. "Got get some sleep. You'll need it."

"Uh, where exactly are we sleeping?" I asked. I did see some doors in the room outside the study.

"Here, I'll show you," Sora responded, leading me outside.

The room outside the study had brown-colored walls and large brightly-shining crescent moons on them. There were a couple pedestals next to the study's door with crescent moon-shaped figures on them. I was starting to think Yen Sid had a thing for astronomy, with all these moons and stars all over the place.

As I figured, Sora led me to one of the doors and pushed it open, gesturing me inside. "This is your room, Kairi."

Walking into it, I felt like I was in somewhat familiar surroundings. The room was small and quite simple, the same brown color and crescent moon shapes on the wall, though the ones in here were blue unlike the ones in the room we just came out of where they were white.

There was a bed at the far side of the room and a dresser just across from the door. There was a nightstand next to the bed with a lamp on it. The window next to the bed was veiled by light blue curtains. I looked up to see more crescent moons on the ceiling.

"The moons on the ceiling glow up at night," Sora explained.

As I walked further into the room, I noticed a picture frame on the nightstand. Drawing closer to it, I saw a picture of me, Sora, and Riku. We were all wearing different clothes and we looked a little younger than we did now.

Sora still had his characteristic spikes, but Riku's hair was shorter, as was mine. It was cut into a short bob. Riku wasn't as tall as he was now and he looked less muscular.

The three of us were standing together in front of a palm tree in what I assumed to be at Destiny Islands.

Sora and Riku were next to each other, Sora a wide grin on his face. Riku had a lopsided smile on his face, looking as cool as ever. I was in front of the two, bending over a bit and a big smile on my face as I held up the peace sign.

"What's this?" I asked Sora, picking up the picture.

"Huh?" Sora came closer. "Oh, that was a picture we took a year ago. Selphie took it for us. It was one of your favorite possessions. You brought it with you when we came here when to start our training as Keyblade wielders."

I stared harder at the picture, taking in the sand on the beach, the bright yellow sun, the clear, glistening waters, the expressions of glee on our faces. For it being one of my favorite possessions, I certainly couldn't remember anything about this picture.

All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in one side of my head, increasing steadily in pressure as I heard something in my mind.

It was the distant sound of a girl's voice.

"_Hey, Riku! At least smile or something! Show some teeth…well, I suppose that'll do…ok, everyone ready? Then on the count of three, say cheese! 1…2…3!"_ Then there was laughter. _"Ha ha ha! Nice one, guys! Let's do another one!"_

The sharp pain in my head had now spread all across my head. It felt like a really bad migraine. The arm holding the frame fell to my side and I held my other hand to my head. Closing my eyes, I tried to block out the pain.

"Kairi! What's the matter?!" I heard Sora's frantic voice, closer to me than before. He must have moved nearer to me.

The pain started to fade away and I was able to slowly open my eyes. Sora's face was right there, his eyes filled with concern.

"Are you ok?"

I slowly shook my head up and down, afraid too much motion would restart the migraine again.

"Yeah…I'm fine," I assured him. I straightened up. "I don't know what came over me. My head just started hurting for a second."

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Sora suggested, still looking worried.

I nodded, placing the picture frame back on the nightstand, directing my attention to Sora. "Yeah, you're right. Hey, where are your and Riku's rooms at?"

"We're on the floor right below here. Riku's on the left and I'm on the right."

"Oh, ok."

"I'll leave you now so you can get some sleep," he told me, heading towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Right." I walked over to the bed, sitting down on it, the bed sinking down slightly in response to my weight.

Sora was about to leave the room when he twisted around. "Hey…Kairi?"

"Yeah?"

"I…don't know if I've said this already, but…" He looked deeply into my eyes, a small smile on his face. "I'm really glad you're back."

I was touched by the sincerity present in Sora's voice and I stared back into his crystal-blue orbs for a few seconds, becoming lost in them, before I shook my head out of it.

"Thanks. I'm glad to be back."

Sora continued to smile at me. "Good night."

"Good night." He closed the door.

I waited until I couldn't hear Sora's footsteps anymore before sighing, lying back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling.

_Man_, I thought. _Today really was a day_. In the same day I met Sora, met Pete, summoned my Keyblade, came to terms with my real past, journeyed to the Mysterious Tower, met Yen Sid and Merlin, and had tea with princesses who were just like me.

I wanted to say it was just like yesterday that I was hunting down spheres with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine, but…it was just yesterday.

And through all that happened, I still was nowhere close to regaining my memories. Except, what happened when I was holding the picture of Sora, Riku, and me? I heard a girl's voice, as clear as day, in my head. And Sora said Selphie, one of the inhabitants of Destiny Islands, had taken the picture. And from what I heard in my head, it sounded like the girl was taking the picture.

Did that mean that Selphie and the girl in my head were the same person? Was that a lost memory that I was remembering? Did somehow looking at the picture trigger something beneath the surface?

The pain in my head was probably a result of my mind struggling to recall lost memories from deep within my consciousness. Paine was right; my memories were hidden deep somewhere and I had to make them resurface. Though I wasn't sure how I was supposed to go about doing that.

_Oh well. I'll worry about that later. I have training tomorrow. I have to be at 100% tomorrow. Time to go to sleep._

Without even bothering to get underneath the covers, I fell asleep just how I laid on the bed, the moons on the ceiling shining over me as I faded into dreamland.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

I didn't have any dreams that night, sleeping like a baby. I guess I was more tired than I thought. I was roused from my slumber the next morning by a light knocking on my door. If I was a heavy sleeper, I would have missed it.

Running my fingers through my hair, a little bleariness in my eyes, I opened the door to see the tall figure of Riku standing right in front of my doorway.

"Oh, morning Riku. What's up?"

He shrugged. "Nothing much. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I feel pretty good." I was a little tired, but if I went back to sleep, I might not get back up again for a long while. The bed was pretty comfy. But there was work to be done.

"Then are you ready for training?"

"You're training me today?" I asked, a little surprised. I thought Yen Sid or Mickey would be starting me off today.

"Yes. Meet me down in the courtyard when you're ready, ok?"

"Ok."

After freshening myself up a bit and giving myself a mini pep talk, I headed down to the courtyard, where I found Riku waiting, his arms crossed over his chest.

He looked up when he saw me, uncrossing his arms. "You ready?"

"Hmm-hmm. Let's do this," I said determinedly. I wasn't sure what was in store for today, but I would do my best.

Riku had me stand several feet in front of him. "Ok, now I want to summon your Keyblade. Sora said you were able to summon yours before, but I need to make sure you can do it at any time." He held out his hand and his Keyblade materialized into his hand.

Riku's Keyblade was broad, slightly wider than me and Sora's Keyblades, dark red and blue with wings sprouting out of the guard. There was another wing acting as the teeth of the blade.

He dropped it to his side. "Ok, now summon yours."

I held my hand out in front of me, just like last time, and willed my Keyblade to come into my hand. A few seconds later, it materialized. I sighed inwardly, a part of me thinking it wasn't going to appear.

"Good." Riku nodded, somewhat impressed. "You got it to appear on your first try. That doesn't usually happen." I figured he was talking about when Mickey was teaching us to become wielders and he was teaching us to summon our Keyblades.

"But, you need to work on making it appear quicker. A few seconds isn't bad, but it needs to be instantaneous. If you're attacked somewhere, you need to be able summon your Keyblade in the blink of eye so you can defend yourself and go on the attack. Those few seconds could be the difference in how the tide of the battle plays out." Riku talked like an expert, looking like he knew his stuff.

"Now make it disappear and summon it again. And this time don't think you can't summon your Keyblade." It was almost like he could mentally sense my doubt.

I made my Keyblade disappear, which was a lot easier than summoning it. I stuck my hand out and concentrated. The Keyblade came quicker this time, only a couple seconds. But it still wasn't good enough.

"Better, but it needs to be just a _little_ quicker." Riku advised. "When you summon your Keyblade, don't think about it. I see you staring at your hand, focusing hard, but that isn't necessary. Summoning your Keyblade is like second nature. In the same second you will your Keyblade to appear, it appears. It's just like that."

Several tries later, I was able to make my Keyblade materialize instantly. Relief washed over me as I passed to Riku's satisfaction.

"Alright. Now, you don't always have to summon your Keyblade by sticking your hand out in front of you." He made his Keyblade disappear into a flash of light. "You can also swing your arm across- "he raised his arm a little into the air and swung it across, his Keyblade appearing in his hand as he finished- "and you can summon it at your side." He made his Keyblade disappear and rested his arm at his side. Almost immediately, his Keyblade was summoned into his hand.

"You try it," he instructed me. I practiced summoning my Keyblade in the two ways Riku had just taught me. Swinging it across wasn't that hard to pick up, but trying to summoning it at my side was a bit harder.

I tried to bring it forth with my arm at my side, but I found it easier to summon the weapon when I could look at my hand and will it into existence.

"Remember Kairi, don't think about it. Just do it," Riku said. His voice remained steady. He didn't sound frustrated at all. I could tell he was a very patient person.

My eyes fell toward the ground, not in disappointment, but in slight concentration.

"Now…summon your Keyblade." I willed my Keyblade to appear and it did, right when I told it too.

I gasped in happiness, glancing up at Riku who looked relieved too. "I did it!" I grinned.

"Nice," he nodded appreciatively. "Let's apply it then."

"What do you mean?"

"Ok," Riku started, taking a few steps back from me, "I'm going to come at you with my Keyblade. I want you to summon your Keyblade in time to block my strike."

"What?" I felt a little nervous at Riku's plan. What if I couldn't block it in time? "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." He promised me. "Just remember what I told you, alright?"

He got into his battle stance, spreading his legs out and bending his knees so he was closer to the ground, his Keyblade in one arm.

"Ready?" He asked as he focused his blue-green eyes on me.

"Uh…sure…" _Let's try not to screw this up_, I told myself.

"I'm coming on 3." Riku began to count. "1…2…3!" Riku rushed forward at me, his Keyblade in tow.

I panicked at seeing Riku's figure moving at me and when he was only a few feet from me, I darted over to my right, out of his direction of motion.

He stopped, standing up straight and knitting his eyebrows. "Uh, Kairi? You were supposed to summon your Keyblade and stop me." Was that a hint of amusement in his voice?

I interlocked my fingers, resting them in front of me. "I know, I know. I panicked. Sorry," I apologized.

Riku sighed, though he didn't sound upset. "What are you panicking for? It's not like I'm gonna hurt you."

"I know, but…I'm still kind of new to all this. I've never done anything like this." It was true. In the few weeks I remembered, I never fought anyone, besides Cat Dude's Heartless, which was once. And I'm still not sure how I managed to win that one.

"You took on Pete's Heartless all by yourself. Sora told me."

"Yeah, cause Sora was in trouble." I shrugged my shoulders as if that was common knowledge. "I couldn't just stand there and do nothing."

"Then pretend that Sora's in trouble and that I'm your enemy. Think of it like that."

I pretended that Riku was one of the Heartless Pete had conjured up. It was a little hard to do since Riku was so tall and the Heartless were so short, but luckily I had a good imagination.

"Ready?" Riku got back into his battle stance.

I exhaled before nodding my head firmly. "Yeah. Come at me," I said boldly.

"1…2…3…" Riku rushed at me again, but this time I was ready.

_Remember Kairi, he's a Heartless. He's your enemy. Sora's in trouble. It's just like Cat Dude all over again._

As Riku's long legs quickly closed the distance between us, I summoned my Keyblade at my side and brought it in front of me. Riku came at me, his Keyblade clashing against mine.

He had a lot of strength in those muscular arms of his; as his Keyblade collided against mine, mine trembled slightly. I felt the force of his strike, one of my feet stumbling back a step.

Riku noticed this and pulled his Keyblade back, allowing me to straighten back up.

"Sorry," he apologized, a sheepish smile on his face. "I probably put too much force into that one. But good, nice block." He backed up from me again. I wondered what he had in mind now.

"We're going to do the same thing again, but a little different. I'm not going to count and then attack. I won't announce that. I'll just randomly come at you. This will test your reflexes."

Once I was ready, Riku came at me, just a second later. Again, I managed to parry his blow, much to my delight. There was less power in Riku's strike so I didn't stumble back this time.

Riku and I ran through the sequence multiple times, Riku racing at me at varying times. Sometimes it would be quick, sometimes he would wait several seconds. Sometimes he would pace a few steps from side to side, like he was trying to throw me off before attacking.

However, I fended him each time. It got easier with each time, until I didn't even have to think about summoning my Keyblade and blocking; it just happened. Like Riku said.

"That was really good, Kairi," Riku congratulated. "How'd that feel?"

I took a glimpse down at my Keyblade before responding. "It felt…great. Natural almost." I judged that my battle skills were coming back though progress may have been a little slow at times. Riku was a really good teacher.

"Then we're on the right path."

"So what's next?" I asked. It felt like we accomplished a lot, but it didn't seem like that much time passed.

"That was just part one, getting you comfortable with summoning your Keyblade." Riku stated. "We haven't even gotten to the hard part yet."

"The hard part?" I repeated. "That didn't sound fun. Not at all. I thought what we did before was already a little challenging.

"Yeah. We're going to move into swordplay now." A rare grin showed on his face. "Luckily you have me as a teacher. I was always better than Sora when it came to fighting with swords."

I remembered Sora and Riku telling me yesterday that they picked up fighting with the Keyblade so quickly when they first starting learning how to wield due to the years of friendly competition with each other. They were rivals and best friends, always competing with each other over everything.

"What's first?" I asked. I hoped we were starting off easy.

"I'm just going to teach you the basics and mechanics of swordplay with the Keyblade. The King or Sora can teach you more advanced moves." Riku summoned his Keyblade and swung his sword around, performing a variety of techniques with it.

It looked effortless, but I knew it was the result of months of practice that only came with hard work. It reminded me of how Paine fought in battle, her sword whistling in the air as she struck down enemies with style and grace.

Riku stopped his demonstration and faced me. "Ok, the first move I'm going to teach you is a side slash. It's simple; just slash your Keyblade out from one side to the other. Like this." He demonstrated.

I summoned my Keyblade and swung it from one side to the other.

"Good. Then there's the upward slash in which you just swing your Keyblade up like you're upper cutting something." He demonstrated. I performed this as well.

"Good, nice." Riku complimented me.

The rest of the lesson went like that, with Riku instructing me on how to do a move and me successfully performing it.

When I got those basics down, he taught me how to string combos together, like side slash, side slash, upward swing, and side slash, side slash, spin 360 degrees and then another side slash.

Riku and I had a mock fight that went deliberately slow so Riku could guide me on the steps. It was like we were moving in slow motion. Plus we were trying not to hurt each other. But Riku really had nothing to worry about with me as his opponent.

"Ok, side slash-" I did one- "thrust-" I obeyed- "now raise your guard, I'm coming in to attack." Riku swung his Keyblade at me in an over-arching blow and I raised my Keyblade in the air to block his move.

"Spin out, bend down a little, and come up for an upward swing." I spun out in an astonishingly graceful circle, bent my knees, and came at Riku with an upward swing which he easily blocked.

"Nice job. But don't be afraid to add some force into your blows. It won't do you much good if you your swings don't have any power to them."

I did what Riku told me and added some more power to my strikes as Riku led me through the motions of swordplay. The swordplay wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I called Riku out on it.

"Hey, I thought you said this would be the hard part?" I teased playfully.

The corners of Riku's mouth turned up a little in what I supposed to be a smile. "Hmm." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You picked up the moves quicker than I thought. I thought you losing your memories would have made you just like when you first started learning how to use the Keyblade. But I guess I was wrong. Guess it is muscle memory like Mickey said…anyways, that's enough for today. Day 1 of training is complete."

A huge weight fell off my shoulders and I let out a long sigh. "Good," I breathed, stretching my arms. "My arms were getting tired."

Riku disappeared into the Tower while I sat down on the steps leading into them. I stared out at into the distance, viewing the yellow hills floating around the island.

A part of me felt a little anxious. I couldn't explain the exact feeling, but a part of me didn't feel ready for all this. The traveling to distant worlds sounded fun, but the fighting of the Heartless that came with it made me a little…nervous.

When I left Spira, I was feeling ready to embrace my past, but now that I was confronted with the truth of it, I didn't know how to feel about it. I didn't regret my decision, not for one second, but I just wished it was easier. The weeks I spent searching for spheres with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine didn't prepare for anything of this.

I was so deep in thought, I didn't hear Riku come back.

"Here," he said. I jumped, turning around just in time to miraculously catch an apple he threw my way.

"Oh. Thanks," I smiled.

"No problem," he said, sitting on a step and leaning back over the ones behind him, an elbow on a step next to him. He lazily bit into the apple, taking a big bite. When he swallowed, he looked my way.

"Everything ok? You looked pretty deep in thought." He took another bite from his apple.

I shrugged, staring down at the apple in my hands. "It's just…honestly, I'm a little uneasy about things," I admitted, playing with the apple. Riku didn't say anything, just waited for me to continue.

"When I saw the Heartless for the first time in Spira…I was a little terrified. I know it probably sounds stupid, but after that I never wanted to see those creatures again." I stopped playing with the apple.

"And now I'm going to have to face them again. I guess I'll get used to it after a while; after all, I used to do this all the time. But it's hard jumping back into something that I have little experience with and no memories to back me up on." I stopped talking, lifting up the apple to take a tiny bite out of it, staring out at the sky again.

Riku didn't say anything for a few seconds. He took another bite of his apple, chewing slowly. He was thinking about what I said I figured.

"You know, you haven't changed much," he finally said.

I looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"When we first started going to other worlds, you were a little apprehensive about fighting the Heartless. Not as much as you were now, but it was still there. But if I or Sora, or anyone was in trouble, you forgot about all of that and rushed in to save them."

"Once you came back here, I thought there might be a possibility you might have changed with your memory loss, but…you're still the same Kairi. A little less bold, but that'll probably soon change." He looked at me, smiling.

"And don't worry about the Heartless. They're not scary. At least I don't think so. Sure they're denizens of the darkness, but you don't have to fear them. Especially not the Shadows; they're super-easy to beat. You'll do just fine. Besides, you got me and Sora to back you up. We'll be right there by your side. "

I could smile at that. I realized I was worried for nothing. I wouldn't be going into the worlds all by myself; I had my two best friends next to me. We would look out for each other and watch each other's backs.

"Thank you, Riku," I said with gratitude in my voice. "I needed that."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

Speaking of friends…

"Hey, where's Sora? I haven't seen him anywhere." I was half-expecting to see his bright, cheery face showing up during my training, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Riku sighed. "That lazy bum is probably still sleeping. He's always sleeping. He's one of the laziest people I've ever met."

"Really? I didn't know he was like that."

"Yeah…" Riku trailed off. He suddenly turned to me, a mischievous grin on his face. "Wanna go splash some cold water on him to wake him up?"

I grinned back at him. "Wow, Riku. I didn't think you were the mischievous type." He simply shrugged. I guess there was a mischievous side to me as well because I grinned back.

"Let's do it."

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

In the last chapter, you probably didn't even notice it, but I mistakenly named the Star Shard as Star Shade. Just wanted to clear that up.

Me:…no one's here? Well in that case, I'll just close out this chapter by saying-

Sora: Good news! I found my hair gel!

Me: Um, what happened to your hair? And why does it look so…flat?

Sora: I told you, I don't get these fabulous-looking spikes for nothing. It takes maintenance.

Me: Well hurry up and apply your hair gel. I'm not used to seeing you like this.

Sora: On it! *applies hair gel generously* Better?

Me: Much. Now as I was saying, thanks for reading! See you next time!


	6. So Far So Great

Sora: Hello there, FanFiction universe! I'm going to be-

Me: Get out of the chair, Sora.

Sora: Aw, man *gets off chair, pouting*

Me: *sits down and clears throat* Hello there, FanFiction universe! Chapter 6 is up! Sorry for the wait, but I went back to look at the previous chapters and there were some grammar errors that I couldn't ignore. I also made some minor changes, added in a sentence or two to make things clearer, but nothing major, so if you've already read the first five chapters, you don't need to go back and read them.

But anyways, I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts in any shape or form. Enjoy!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Previous Chapter_

_I could smile at that. I realized I was worried for nothing. I wouldn't be going into the worlds all by myself; I had my two best friends next to me. We would look out for each other and watch each other's backs. _

"_Thank you, Riku," I said with gratitude in my voice. "I needed that."_

"_Hey, what are friends for?"_

_Speaking of friends…_

"_Hey, where's Sora? I haven't seen him anywhere." I was half-expecting to see his bright, cheery face showing up during my training, but he was nowhere to be seen._

_Riku sighed. "That lazy bum is probably still sleeping. He's always sleeping. He's one of the laziest people I've ever met."_

"_Really? I didn't know he was like that."_

"_Yeah…" Riku trailed off. He suddenly turned to me, a mischievous grin on his face. "Wanna go splash some cold water on him to wake him up?"_

_I grinned back at him. "Wow, Riku. I didn't think you were the mischievous type." He simply shrugged. I guess there was a mischievous side to me as well because I grinned back._

"_Let's do it."_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Chapter 6: So Far So Great**

So with day one of training done, it was now on to day two. I was going to be doing something completely different from swordplay training with Riku. Today I would be learning magic from the King.

But instead of the familiar sights of the courtyard outside the Tower where I practiced with Riku yesterday, the King and I went to Traverse Town, a town comprised of worlds that were lost to darkness and also served as a sanctuary for the people whose worlds were destroyed.

It was a quiet and calm town with a Victorian-style design, streetlamps lighting up the streets and alleyways, bright stars glistening down in the night sky over the place. But before I could gaze around any further, Mickey whisked me to what he called the Magician's Study, where Merlin used to live.

We were en route to the Study in the Third District when we were attacked by the same Heartless that I saw in Spira.

Maybe it was because I defeated these types of Heartless before that I (almost) didn't waver when they appeared out of nowhere in front of us from shadowy silhouettes on the ground, twisting this way and that.

But I didn't expect for them to come out nowhere like that. I wondered how they found us. My startled state led me to have a slow reaction whereas Mickey immediately rushed in at them.

Mickey took care of most of them, leaving me to gape in rapt fascination as he flipped through the air with expert agility, bringing his Keyblade down on his foes, before I realized I was supposed to be helping. It was too late though and I only managed to take down a couple before Mickey finished off the last one. Still, it was an accomplishment.

"You ok, Kairi?" The King asked. He knew I was still new to all this.

"Yeah…I wasn't expecting them to just pop out of nowhere like that…"

"The Keyblade is like a homing beacon for the Heartless," the King explained. "As a Keyblade wielder, you'll have to deal with random attacks by the Heartless. Plus, this area is always overrun with Heartless. Ya have to keep your eyes peeled."

"Oh…joy…" I finished sarcastically. No wonder Mickey rushed so quickly into battle; he was used to this.

We finally made to Merlin's old place, where there was a door with a picture of a fire on it. I watched as Mickey fired a fireball at the door and the door opened. We made our way up the stairs to the upper level of the residence.

The room we were now in was very large and wide, giving us plenty of room to move around.

There was a noise and Merlin appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Oh goodie!" He exclaimed. "You're right on time. Mickey, Kairi," he nodded at the both of us.

"Shall we get started?" Mickey asked.

"Of course!" Merlin promptly snapped his fingers and all of a sudden, items of furniture like dressers and tables materialized all around us, dancing in one spot as they levitated in the air. I began wondering what exactly I would be doing in my training with the King. Merlin moved off to the side.

"So Kairi...are you ready?" Mickey asked me with a smile on his face.

"Pretty good, actually," I replied. "I can't wait for today's lesson."

It was the truth. I was excited to learn some magic. I had seen some performed in Spira, but I never thought I would have the ability to do so myself.

"Well then let's get started!" Mickey took out his Keyblade. I did the same, summoning it at my side without even glancing at my arm, just like Riku told me do. I smiled internally.

The blade of the King's Keyblade was blue and decorated with stars, while the teeth were a crescent moon and a star. The guard was two shooting stars. The Keychain design was a crescent moon.

"Ok, so the first spell is Fire. It's easy," Mickey spoke. He pointed at a nearby dresser and yelled "Fire!" Just like how he opened the door to this place, a blast of fire shot out of the tip of Mickey's Keyblade and hit the dresser, causing it to shake.

For a minute I thought the dresser would be damaged, but I was surprised to see there wasn't even a scratch on it. It just rocked back, the doors flying open for a second. That must be why we were practicing magic here. I could perform magic on the furniture without ruining it. It was perfect.

Mickey turned to me. "Now you try. Just concentrate and visualize."

"Right." I nodded. I looked at the dresser the King had just fired on with a determined look in my eyes, taking aim with my Keyblade. Taking a deep breath, I yelled: "Fire!"

Somehow, the attack worked and fire came out of my Keyblade and hit the dresser. I was stunned. I couldn't believe I actually got it to work on the first try. The fire wasn't nearly as impressive as the King's, but it was still something.

"Wow! Nice job, Kairi!" Mickey congratulated with a wide smile on his face. "You got it on your first try!"

"Yeah, but it was still wasn't good as yours..."

"Aww, it was only your first try. Just keep practicing it and you'll get it." The King beamed at me. Either he was being very nice or very sincere, but I still appreciated it all the same.

When I first met the King, I wasn't sure how to act around him. Because he was a king, I thought I would have to bow to him at all times or kiss his ring or something. But I quickly found out that he was a pretty easygoing person whom I'm didn't need to be overly formal with. And he didn't expect Sora, Riku, or me to be overly formal with him either.

"Now the upgraded version of Fire is Firaga. It's even more powerful."

Mickey took aim with his Keyblade at the same dresser and yelled "Firaga!" I was amazed to see an even bigger fireball emerge from his Keyblade and hit the dresser. However, this time when it was hit by the King's attack, it disappeared.

"You try," the King commanded me.

I raised my Keyblade and took aim at a tall dancing chair, concentrating, trying to make up for my last attempt of casting Fire.

"Firaga!" I was pleased to see that my ball of fire was just as big as the King's, striking the table. It disappeared just like the dresser.

"Nice job!" Mickey congratulated me, beaming. "I think we can move onto the next spell. The next one is Blizzard. Blizzard!" Mickey yelled, aiming at a chair. A spreading burst of ice crystals shot out In front of the King, hitting the chair and shaking it.

_Hmm, seems simple enough._ My latest success with Firaga made me somewhat more confident in my abilities.

"Blizzard!" Ice crystals shot out of my Keyblade and hit the chair.

"Great! Then there's of course Blizzaga," Mickey spoke. Just like Firaga in relation to Fire, Blizzaga unleashed larger ice crystals, effectively "destroying" the chair.

I attempted this as well and got similar results to when I casted Blizzaga.

Next Mickey taught me how to cast Thunder and the Thundaga spells. He had me stand away from him as he raised his Keyblade over his head and rained thunderbolts down from above him, as if there was an invisible raincloud above him, destroying all the furniture levitating around him. They were promptly replaced with new furniture.

There was also Aero and Aeroga, which created brief whirlwinds that blew the furniture away from us. The King explained to me that this could help in deflecting certain attacks. I decided to make a mental note of that.

Then there was Magnet and Magnera. Like casting the Thunder spell, the King raised his Keyblade above his head and summoned a purplish-white magnetic vortex above him that drew in nearby furniture, destroying them as they came into contact with it.

Reflect and Reflega, when casted, produced a transparent dome made of hexagonal shapes that encased the user in a shield. It could be used to deflect certain attacks like Aero, and like its name suggested, if used at the right time, it could be used to reflect attacks back at the attacker. I also made a mental note of that one.

And then the last spell the King taught me was Cure, but he didn't demonstrate it.

"The last basic spell is Cure, which is used as a healing technique, to heal yourself if ya get hurt during battle," he explained to me.

"I can heal myself? Just like that?"

"Yes, but you won't be able to use it "just like that". Cure is one of those spells that you can only use so much in battle before ya have to wait a while to use it again. So don't use it too often," he advised. "It's a good idea to keep potions and such on hand."

"So what's next?" I asked. Magic training didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, but I knew it wouldn't be that easy. There had to be something else. I just hoped I didn't have to fight Mickey.

Instead of immediately answering my question, he faced Merlin. "Merlin?" He gave a knowing look to the wizard.

He understood, nodding his head. I guess they had planned this out beforehand. "Rightio." Merlin snapped his fingers and all of a sudden, the furniture levitating around the King and I began moving around more, flitting from one spot to the next. I turned my head in surprise.

"Now it's time for you to apply what ya learned," the King smiled. "Just use the magic I taught you to get rid of all the furniture in this room. I'll tell you when to stop."

I looked around at the tables, chairs, and dressers, all circling around the area. "You mean…all that furniture?"

Mickey nodded. "Yep. I just need to see what you've learned so far. It's just a little test." On that note, Mickey joined Merlin at his side on the other side of the room.

"You can start when you're ready!"

"Okay." Glancing up at the furniture, I tried to think out a battle plan.

_Ok, so I have Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Magnet as my attack spells. Aero is used to push enemies and attacks away; Reflect defends from attacks. I guess I don't really need Aero or Reflect, since it doesn't seem like the furniture is going to attack me…_I cast a wary eye at them, just in case though.

_Ok, Kairi, let's do this._ I felt determined.

I eyed a chair to my right and pointed my Keyblade at it. "Fire!" I shouted. A burst of fire came out and hit the chair directly. I fired another shot at it, and then another one, and it disappeared.

Pleased with that, I saw a couple of tea kettles moving around in front of me, from side to side. I fired a Blizzard attack at one of them, but I missed. I tried again and failed once more.

Then I came to the conclusion that since I was facing a moving target with a fixed pattern of motion, I shouldn't fire an attack at where it was, but where it would be in a second. It worked to my advantage, and I got rid of both kettles with Blizzaga attacks.

I went around like that, using the spells Mickey taught me. At one point, all the furniture surrounded me closely. Overwhelmed, I turned my head this way and that, not sure which piece of furniture to attack next.

An idea popped into my mind. I raised my Keyblade over my head. "Thunder!" Bolts of lightning came down on some of the pieces of furniture. For the pieces that remained, I used a Magnet spell to draw them into the magnetic vortex, destroying them.

It was fun, practicing magic like this. Being able to cast magic like this was exciting. I continued training with the furniture for another minute before the King said, "Ok Kairi! You can stop now."

The furniture stopped moving and became stationary, descending to the ground at Merlin's command. The King strode over to me.

"Well done! That was excellent!" The King praised me.

"It was?"

The King nodded. "You picked up the magic spells faster than I would have thought. And ya did a great job against the furniture. But you do have a penchant for magic, so I guess that's why. I suppose the memory loss didn't affect your natural abilities."

"Huh. I guess it didn't." I admit I was a bit nervous about the training week. I never fought in combat before and I wasn't sure what to expect. But I did surprisingly well in swordplay yesterday, and I did even better in magic today. Looks like I was worried for nothing. But then again I only did two days of training. Who knew what might be in store for the other days?

"That's all I'll teach you for today," the King said. "When we get back to the Tower, there's a book I want ya to read."

"Book? What kind of book?"

"It's in Master Yen Sid's study. It talks about the Heartless, Keyblades, an' more. I want you to read up on it so you can be prepared for when you go into battle. If what Master Yen Sid said was true about the darkness spreading, then the battles may get a little harder. You need to be at the top of your game."

_Top of my game, huh?_ I thought. I _was_ a bit curious about these Heartless creatures and about the Keyblade itself. Reading the book seemed like a good way to get my answers.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After saying goodbye to Merlin, Mickey and I traveled back to the Tower, where Master Yen Sid handed me a large tome off one of the bookshelves in his study. It was a simple aqua blue-colored book that felt heavy in my hands. It was titled _The Complete Keyblade Wielder's Guide_ .Yen Sid told me that a former Keyblade Master wrote the book and it had been in his possession for quite some time.

Taking the book back to my room, I curled on my bed, getting comfortable. I didn't get to do much reading in Spira, but it was something I enjoyed doing when I had the opportunity to do so.

Unsurprisingly, the book started out with a chapter on Keyblades. I began to read.

"Keyblades are mysterious weapons that can be summoned and dispelled at will. Generally speaking, all Keyblades share the same central features, modeled after a key: a guard with a handle, a hilt, and a head at the end of the shaft that resembles the teeth of a skeleton key."

"The Keyblade chooses its wielder instead of the other way around, and it only chooses people with strong hearts. People with a strong enough heart are able to give or take Keyblades from others, or take possession of one if it has been abandoned. If someone does not have the right kind of heart, they cannot wield a Keyblade, regardless if a wielder hands it to him or her to hold."

"People become Keyblade wielders in the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony, or the Bequeathing. A Keyblade wielder of Master status can choose someone to inherit the power to summon and wield a Keyblade. If the Keyblade accepts the inheritor, then they will be able to call forth their own Keyblade whenever they try to do so. However, I have discovered that inheritance can be passed on accidentally, if someone with a strong heart unintentionally touches a wielder's Keyblade, giving them the ability to wield one themself. "

_Oh, right,_ I thought. _I remember Sora telling me that he, Riku, and I had the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony performed on us before when we were little, when I first arrived on Destiny Islands, though we never figured out the men who performed the ceremony were. _I continued reading.

"The Keyblade holds many different powers. Its signature ability, as its name suggests, is it can open or lock any lock or door. It can open or unlock the hearts to worlds, or lock, unlock, or extract someone's heart. "

"Keyblades are natural mediums for performing a variety of magic. Wielders can use elemental magic to inflict greater damage on their enemies. Keyblades can also be used to channel the forces of light or darkness for the wielder."

"The weapons are especially effective against the Heartless, since they are connected to hearts and darkness. "

There was more information on the subject of Keyblades before it segued its way to the next chapter: the Heartless.

"Heartless are beings of darkness, first originating from the Realm of Darkness. They are born from the darkness in people's hearts. Heartless are created when someone's heart has been consumed by darkness, giving the darkness shape and form, thus turning them into a Heartless, or when someone has their heart taken by the Heartless. "

"Heartless are mindless creatures and react purely on instinct. Their main desire is to capture more hearts, so they can create more Heartless. For that purpose, they attack innocent people, but even more than their desire for turning people into Heartless is their desire for the hearts of worlds. They will invade a world and look for the heart of the world. If they find the heart, they will devour it and send the world into destruction."

"Heartless seek out the users of Keyblades, since the Keyblade has the power to lock and unlock hearts. The Keyblade is used as a homing beacon for the Heartless to find the wielder and consume the heart of the one who wields it. Due to this fact, Keyblade wielders are always under constant attack, and must be on guard at all times." _Perfect. Just perfect._

"Heartless seem to travel around using the Corridors of Darkness, inter-dimensional pathways that connect all the worlds. But since these Corridors are located in the Realm of Darkness, they are very dangerous for someone who isn't used acclimated to the darkness, putting them at risk if they use them carelessly." That line reminded me of when Sora first landed in Spira, carelessly using a Corridor of Darkness.

There were highly detailed drawings of the Heartless provided with a summary of each Heartless type, which included name, strengths, weaknesses, and more.

The first picture was of the Heartless Cat Dude summoned when I encountered him in Spira and the ones Mickey and I encountered in Traverse Town. In fact, they were the only Heartless I'd seen so far in person. The one in the drawing stared back out at me with its yellow bulbous eyes.

"The Shadow" was headlined in bold letters at the top of the page. Below it the text read: "The most basic type of Heartless, found in many different places. Has the ability to flatten itself into a silhouette on the ground, becoming a literal shadow. Attacks with a simple but vicious claw strike. Easy to beat alone, but it can be slightly more challenging when numbers of them swarm. I have found the Thunder spell to be useful in situations like these."

I flipped the page to see a Heartless with a more humanoid structure than the Shadow and much more taller, probably taller than me, but also had the same pitch black skin and glowing yellow eyes, long and crooked antennae falling back behind it. But that was all they had in common. This Heartless was somewhat muscular and it had very large hands and long feet.

"The Neoshadow. Stronger and faster than its Shadow counterpart. A little more difficult to beat than Shadows since they are more strategic in battle, lacking some of the impulsiveness other Heartless possess. Attacks include jumping into the air and spinning, then launching themselves and basic melee strikes. They will sink back into the floor to avoid attacks, muck like the Shadows."

I flipped through the pages, looking at all the different Heartless. My head spun at all the different types of Heartless there were. When I was in Spira I thought that the Shadows were the only type of Heartless there were, but that obviously was not the case.

There were Red Nocturnes, Heartless they utilized fire magic, Blue Rhapsodies that used Blizzard magic, Air Soldiers that flew around and delivered quick attacks at any given moment, Darkballs which went into a "berserk state" in which they rocked around a limited area and attacked anything in its way, Large Bodies, that had a variety of strong attacks and could only be damaged from the back, and many, many more kinds of Heartless.

I tried to learn as much as I could since I would have to go against these types of Heartless when I traveled to other worlds; I shouldn't make the mistake of using Fire magic against a Red Nocturne when, according to the text, I would actually end up healing them.

One of the Heartless that stood out to me was the Darkside. It appeared to be a highly massive creature, humanoid in structure and was muscular. Its legs were somewhat short and its feet were thin and curled upward, though its long arms made up for its short legs. Small, twisted wings came out from its back and a gaping heart-shaped hole was located in its abdominal area. It looked a little intimidating, but the writer of the book said that the Darkside wasn't that hard to beat, as long as you kept moving around to avoid its attacks.

My interest was piqued when I saw there was a chapter on the Princesses of Heart later in the book. There wasn't much in the section though, at least not a lot that I didn't already get from other Princesses. I did discover that Princesses of Heart could use Corridors of Darkness without sustaining any negative effects due to our hearts of pure light that couldn't be corrupted by darkness.

After a while, it felt like I had been reading for quite some time. Before I could catch myself I found myself looking out the window to get a gauge on what the time was before I remembered that it was always the same time of day around here.

I thought I had read enough though; my brain was starting to hurt a little from trying to process and memorize so much information.

As I left my room to stretch my legs by walking around a bit, I saw Sora leaving Master Yen Sid's study.

"Hey Sora!" I smiled, waving. I didn't see too much of Sora the past couple days, since he apparently was doing some training himself. He was preparing for his Mark of Mastery exam, though when we would be taking it was a mystery to me.

He grinned at me. "Kairi! What's up?"

I shrugged. "Just doing a bit of reading. What are you up to?"

"Well... "Sora placed his arms behind his head. "I was planning on going to Twilight Town to get some sea-salt ice cream. I haven't had any in a while."

Twilight Town. That was the name of the place where you could take a special train here, which rode the railway I was so curious about when I first came here.

"Can I come with?" I asked.

"Of course! You must have forgotten what sea-salt ice cream tasted like: we should refresh your memory," Sora grinned.

"Is Riku coming?"

"Nah," Sora lowered his arms. "Riku hates sea-salt ice cream." Sora shook his head in mock shame. "Anyways, let's go!"

Sora and I took the Gummi ship, leaving Sora to fly the ship since I had no experience in doing so. But I watched Sora as he drove so I would be able to drive myself. It seemed easy enough.

Sora landed the ship in the woods outside the town in a clearing and we walked along the pathway framed by tall leafy trees before emerging through a large hole in a wall into the town itself.

I could see why it was called Twilight Town. The sky was yellowish-orange and red, and the sun glowed softly from its place in the sky. Sora told me later that the sun remained in that same spot all the time, the town caught in an endless sunset.

I stood up and looked around the place. Twilight Town looked to be a small, quiet town, like Traverse Town. It looked like one of those towns where everyone knew one another and were pretty close-knit.

The streets were long and winding, some of them steeply sloped almost like a hill. I saw a grand clock tower rising up towards the sky at one side of the town.

The place where Sora and I had come into was called Tram Common, an open-market area where there were a bunch of shops and some people milling about.

"Come on, let's go get some ice cream!" Sora said.

Sora led me to one of the shops, where a cheery vendor sold him two sea-salt ice creams, one for him and one for me.

Sea-salt ice cream was a light blue rectangular-shaped bar on a stick. It looked pretty tasty.

"Wow, it does look good," I commented, examining the snack.

"Wait till you eat it," Sora smiled.

I began eating it, letting the flavor run down my throat. The ice cream lived up to its name; it was salty and sweet.

"It's delicious," I said, licking my lips in satisfaction and smiling. Sora smiled back.

"Here, there's something I want to show you," he said as he led me somewhere.

He led me up to the top of the clock tower where we sat, looking out into the sky.

"Wow," I breathed, stretching my eyes to the horizon. The sight was stunning, the sunset even more beautiful up here. Sora and I had the perfect view, not only of the sky, but of the quaint little town below us. I looked out at the tops of the houses and buildings below us. A breeze rolled through, adding to the serene atmosphere.

Sora and I sat there in silence for a minute or two, just enjoying each other's company and the great view before he broke the silence.

"So how was training today?" He asked, licking his ice cream.

"Great. The King taught me how to do magic."

"What he'd teach you?"

"Just the basics, he said. He taught me the Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Magnet, Reflect, and Cure spells. I practiced on some furniture Merlin provided.

"He didn't teach you any advanced magic techniques or combo attacks?

"Nope." I answered before resuming eating my ice cream. I looked at Sora. "Why? Are you going to teach me?"

Sora sighed. "Honestly, it should be the other way around. Between you, me, and Riku, you were always the best when it came to magic."

"And...Riku was the best when it came to swordplay?" I teased, grinning, remembering Riku's words from yesterday.

Sora turned his head sharply. "Did he tell you that?! _I_ was better than him when it came to swordplay, _not_ the other way around!" Sora exclaimed. Yep, this was the result of years of a friendly rivalry.

I laughed. "Calm down. You guys are both great. Let's just say that, ok?"

Sora muttered under his breath about getting back at Riku, but didn't say anything else.

I looked back out at the sky, sighing in contentment. "This is a really nice place."

"Yeah, we used to come here every once in a while just to relax. The last time we were here was just a couple weeks before you..." Sora trailed off. I knew what he was about to say.

"Before I lost my memories," I finished simply.

"Yeah..."

"Well...if it's any consolation..." I swung my legs back and forth. "I've been getting some of them back."

Shock appeared on Sora's face. "Wait, really?"

"Yep. I actually experienced a couple of them in my dreams when I was in Spira. And I remembered something yesterday. Who knows?" I shrugged. "Maybe if we wait long enough, I'll eventually get them all back."

Sora grinned. "That's great, Kairi! I knew they couldn't be completely gone." His face dropped slightly. "Wish there was a way to speed up the process though."

"Hey, only time can tell, right? Guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time."

It was then I realized something.

"Oh right! After I finished training with the King, he had me read a book, _The Complete Keyblade Wielder's Guide_?"

"Yeah, I read it. What about it?"

"In it, it talked about the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony and how inheritance was passed from one Keyblade wielder to a successor. I recalled you telling me about how we were made Keyblade wielders when we were younger. I was wondering if you remembered what the people who performed the ceremony on us looked like."

"Hmm..." Sora thought about it, his forehead creasing. "You know...I don't really remember. But, I do remember that one of them had black hair and...a mustache..."

"Uh-_huh_..."

"Hey, we were only four or five at the time!" Sora defended. "The details are a bit fuzzy. But I do want to see them again." Sora looked back out at the sky, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "They gave us the ability to wield Keyblades and pretty much started our adventure. I want to meet them again."

"Hmm…there must really be a lot of worlds out there for us never to see any Keyblade wielders… have we?" I tried to think if Riku or Sora had mentioned any other wielders when they were talking about the past, but nothing came up.

"Nope, we've never seen any. Yen Sid knew some I think, but that was a long time ago." I wondered how many Keyblade wielders there were in the worlds, if there were a lot of us or just several.

Sora and I stayed up on the clock tower just talking before we decided to call it quits, heading down the tower and to our Gummi ship.

It was when we were walking back that several Blue Rhapsodies appeared out of darkness in front of us, surrounding us.

It was my first time seeing non-Shadow Heartless, Heartless that I never fought before, but I wasn't scared. Maybe because these guys looked pretty weak and harmless. And maybe because I was more prepared this time around. And maybe because Sora was right beside me to lend a hand.

Still, Sora was quicker to jump in than I was. "Heartless!" He exclaimed, summoning his Keyblade in front of him.

I was about to summon mine when Sora said to me: "Don't worry, Kairi. I got this one."

Raising one eyebrow, I dropped my hand back to my side, letting Sora handle the situation.

He raised his Keyblade towards the sky. "Firaga Burst!" He yelled. My eyes went high above Sora's head as a large fireball appeared above it and smaller fireballs rained down from the bigger fireball, incinerating all the Heartless into fiery oblivion. Sora had taken all the Heartless out in one attack. And a good one too. The book said Blue Rhapsodies, since they used Blizzard magic, were vulnerable to Fire magic. That Fiiraga Burst move Sora performed did the trick.

"Whoa...that was pretty cool," I complimented. That must have been one of the "advanced magic techniques" he mentioned earlier when we were on top of the clock tower.

Sora placed his hands behind his head, looking slightly overconfident. "Eh, it was nothing," he grinned.

"Are you training me tomorrow? In those 'advanced magic techniques' you mentioned earlier?" I asked as we continued to trek through the woods, trying not to trip over any branches that might be in our way. The sun was still in the exact same spot as it was when we first got here, like Sora said.

"Of course! Riku and the King got to teach you, so now it's my turn."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	7. Stepping It Up

**Chapter 7: Stepping It Up**

_Sora, Riku, and I were lying on the beach side by side, staring up at the starry sky, our eyes focused on the stars twinkling far off in the distance. We watched in silence as the minutes ticked by. _

_"The stars look really beautiful tonight," I noted._

_"Yeah," Riku agreed._

_"I wonder if they're any worlds out there that see the same sky we do," Sora thought aloud._

_Riku snorted as if Sora had said something stupid. "Of course they're other worlds out there. Where do you think Kairi came from?"_

_"Oh...right."_

_Riku continued. "Kairi didn't come from Destiny Islands, she came from another place. Question is, what world? And how do we get there?"_

_Both Sora and I looked at Riku. "You want to travel to other worlds?"_

_"Of course. I mean, don't you want to as well? We can figure out where Kairi came from. And see other worlds as well, I hope."_

_Sora looked back up at the sky. "It does sound pretty cool..."_

_We sat in silence again._

_"So Kairi," Sora piped up. "You don't remember anything about your hometown?"_

_I shook my head in the sand. "Nope. Not a thing. But even though I don't, I'm pretty happy here. Still, I _would_ like to know where I came from. Just to know."_

_"Hmm...but how could we get there?" Sora mused._

_"We...could take a raft," Riku suggested._

_"A raft?" Sora's tone was full of disbelief. "Could a raft really get us there?"_

_"Who knows? If we have to, we'll try something else." _

_"I don't know..."_

_A shooting star suddenly streaked across the sky. I gasped in surprise. "A shooting star!" I breathed in delight. "Let's make a wish!"_

_I closed my eyes shut and thought real hard. _I wish there was a way for us to get off this island and see other worlds out there_. _

_I was sure Sora and Riku thought the same thing too. _

**xxxxx **

I woke up from my dream hearing the distant sound of voices.

Well technically it wasn't a dream since it was more like a memory from long ago.

_My wish did come true after all,_ I thought._ I did go and see other worlds out there. Though not in the way I expected._

"Deep freeze!" I heard Sora shout. It sounded like he was in the courtyard.

I sat up in bed, stretching my arms towards the ceiling after a long rest last night before I walked towards the window.

I glanced out of it and saw Sora and Riku down on the ground with their Keyblades drawn, looking like they were sparring with one another. From my position at the top of the tower, they looked a lot smaller than what they really were, like toy soldiers.

They traded quick blows with their Keyblades, before Riku jumped back and launched a Fire attack at Sora who nimbly rolled out of the way, dodging the attack completely.

_Oh...they must be training by sparring with one another. _

It looked like the two of them were pretty equal in terms of skills, neither one being able to get a real edge on the other. Neither one of them seemed to be tired, making me wonder as to how long they would continue fighting.

Wanting to get a better look at their fight for educational purposes, I strolled out of my room and down the steps towards the front door of the Tower, the noises from outside getting louder as I came closer to the courtyard.

I pulled open the door and stepped outside, trying to close it gently and quietly behind me, but I failed in my attempt and the door slammed shut behind me, making me jump a little.

Sora's attention was torn from the fight by the sound as his eyes flashed my way, and Riku took advantage of his temporary inattention.

He launched an Aero attack at Sora, sending him flying back several feet.

"Oof!" Sora said as he landed on his back with a thud. He sat up and tried to get back on his feet but Riku was too quick and before Sora could get his Keyblade up in the air in time, Riku was on him, his Keyblade at Sora's neck.

He smirked victoriously. "I win."

Sora's jaw dropped. "No fair! I was distracted!" Maybe I had come out at the wrong time.

Riku dematerialized his Keyblade, stepping back as Sora quickly got to his feet.

"Hey, a win is a win. You know that." Riku countered, not wanting to accede to the fact that he won due to Sora being distracted by the loud noise of the door being shut.

"So this makes our record what again? How many wins are we at?" Riku asked.

Sora shrugged. "I dunno; I stopped keeping count after a while."

"Why?" Riku crossed his arms over his chest as a devilish smile crossed his faces. "Because you were losing?"

Sora glared embers at his best friend as he huffed. "No! It is not!"

"If you say so," Riku sang. Sora fumed on the spot.

Riku finally looked my way. "Oh, hey Kairi," he greeted.

Sora immediately stopped fuming as he remembered that I was still there, the expression on his face completely changing. "Hi Kairi!" He grinned.

"Hi!" I greeted back, stepping down the stairs. "Sorry about the door."

"It's no problem," Sora assured me, even though he had just lost his fight and was mad about it. "It's not your fault."

"I'll go get everything set up." Riku shuffled up the stairs and into the Tower, his hands in his pockets.

I glanced at Riku's back as he entered the Tower. "What kind of training are we doing today?" I assumed that since we would be doing magic training, we would be doing it at the same place where the King taught me yesterday, at Merlin's old house; but Riku just said he was going to "get everything set up." This meant we would be training inside the Tower.

"Follow me," Sora simply said, leading the way towards the Tower door. He led me to a room on the first floor of the turret that I'd never been in before, entering a wide and spacious room, nearly the size of the room I practiced magic training with the King in.

There weren't any windows and the only light that came into the room came from a few overhead lights on the ceiling. On the left side of the room, there was a large computer and control panel, blocked by a wall of glass that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, a door in it that allowed access to the computer. Riku was in there, tinkering with buttons on the control panel, his hands flying across the panel.

"This is the Simulation Chamber," Sora explained, stretching his arms out as he strode to the center of the room. "Chip and Dale built the computer for us a while ago, sometime around the start of our Keyblade training, so we could get some practice fighting Heartless so we wouldn't be completely unprepared when we journeyed to other worlds." Sora's eyes were on the computer area.

I looked around the room. "So we're going to be fighting simulated Heartless in here?"

"Exactly!"

"And how does that work?"

This question seemed to stump Sora, looking like he didn't know exactly how to answer it. "Uh…well…" He crossed his arms over his chest, looking deep in thought. "You know, I don't really know. Chip and Dale explained it, but I didn't really catch all of it. All I know is pressing certain buttons produces certain Heartless. I asked Riku to help out today because, well, I'm not very good with computers," Sora admitted with a sheepish grin on his face, scratching the back of his head.

"What kind of Heartless are we going to be fighting?" I knew Darksides were out of the question; they would be too big and tall to fit into the room.

Sora's grin got wider. "You'll see." His eyes left mine to look at Riku. "Hey Riku, are we ready?"

"Yeah, we're ready. What level do you want it on?"

"Hmmm…put it on level 3. And generate several Shadows."

"Level 3." Riku pressed a button. "It's loading."

"How many levels are there?" I asked.

"Ten, but we won't be getting there today. Maybe Level 7 if you're lucky." I wondered what was on Level 10. If it was the top level, it must be difficult to beat.

There was a loud whooshing noise, startling me. Several white portals stemming from the ground appeared all around Sora and I. When they disappeared, Shadow Heartless were left in their spots. They moved about on the spot, their yellow eyes flitting rapidly from one spot to the other, just standing there, not attacking Sora or me.

Sora faced me. "Ok, now the lesson can start. Summon your Keyblade." He commanded. I summoned mine and he did the same.

"The first move I'm going to teach you is a move you saw me do yesterday in Twilight Town, to get rid of all those Blue Rhapsodies. Firaga Burst, remember?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I remember."

"Great! So all you want to do is raise your Keyblade over your head—"Sora raised his Keyblade over his head—"and, Firaga Burst!" He yelled. Just like before, a large fireball appeared over his Keyblade and rained down smaller fireballs on the Heartless, incinerating them. There was another whooshing noise as more white portals appeared and more Heartless emerged in their spots.

Sora lowered his weapon. "Now you try."

I took a deep breath. Here goes… I brought my flowery Keyblade skyward and shouted "Firaga Burst!" A great fireball appeared and fireballs came out from it, destroying all the Heartless surrounding myself. I sighed inwardly in relief as I slowly lowered my Keyblade, pleased.

"Nice Kairi!" Sora grinned. Sora moved right along to the next technique. "The next move is Mega Flare. This one is kind of bright so you might want to prepare yourself. Riku, can you put in some Air Soldiers?"

The Shadow Heartless that promptly replaced their previous computer-generated simulations were also promptly replaced with Air Solider Heartless, levitating harmlessly in the air.

Sora pointed his Keyblade at one of the Heartless. "Mega Flare!" A fireball came out of his Keyblade and hit one of the Air Soldiers. But this wasn't' an ordinary fireball; when it hit the Heartless, it exploded, creating a blinding and distorting explosion that forced me to cover my eyes as the burst of light temporarily blinded my vision. When I could see again, I noticed that all the Heartless in the room had disappeared in the blast, in the process replaced by new Heartless.

Sora was looking at me, and I wondered if he had closed his eyes during the explosion. "I won't ask you to do that move, since it's so blinding and we don't really use it. But I just wanted you to be aware of it."

I was grateful for that decision. My eyes still stung a bit from the attack.

Sora then asked Riku to raise it to Level 4 and to bring out some Creeper Plants. I hadn't gotten to these types of Heartless yet in the guide book Mickey instructed me to read, so I was completely unfamiliar with them, seeing them for the first time.

They had small faces, with two glowing yellow eyes and a jagged maw. Four large flower petals bordered their heads, two orange and two yellow. Four orange and yellow spikes protruded from their heads. Thin, green, vine-like necks extended from the back of their heads to their small, blue-green bodies, where four root-like legs extended from the corners and into the ground.

"Ok, so the next attack is Fire Surge." With his Keyblade in hand, Sora rushed forward a short distance, surrounded by a ring of fire, attacking all the enemies in his path.

After that, it was Aqua Splash, where you could spray melted ice at Heartless in a line.

Judgment used Aero magic and you could hurl the Keyblade at a group of enemies, the Keyblade turning into a boomerang that would rapidly strike the enemies multiple times. I was amazed at how the Keyblade seemed to be almost able to sense the enemies and hit them, before coming back to my hand a few seconds later.

Tornado was another Aero attack, where the user summoned a mini Tornado that swept up any Heartless in its path, effectively stunning them, where they would be left open for attack, Sora explained to me.

And the lesson went much like how the King taught me magic yesterday, Sora demonstrating a technique and me performing it. I had to perform some attacks twice, sometimes three times, before I got the hang of it, but Sora was extremely patient with me and more than willing to go over something more than once.

The most difficult attack to learn was Raging Storm, where one could summon three pillars of flame that would orbit one as they moved. I could summon the pillars, but I couldn't get them to follow me, much less orbit around me.

I pouted as the flame pillars once again remained static, blowing hot flames into the air, but not moving from their spots, before they eventually disappeared. They managed to take some Heartless out with them, but there were still some that were left untouched.

Seeing my disappointed expression, Sora reassured me. "It's ok, Kairi. Raging Storm is a pretty powerful move. I didn't master it on my first try either. It took me a few tries too."

That did lift my spirits up a bit. I guess I didn't do as bad as I thought.

"Remember, visualization is key. Here, close your eyes," I shot Sora a slightly amused look but did as he said.

Sora spoke in a slow, tranquil voice, like we were meditating. "Now, imagine yourself executing Raging Storm. Imagine the pillars of flame bursting into existence. You can feel their warmth soothing you, surrounding you with their heat. They're right by your side. And as you move forward, they move with you, staying right by your side. They're guarding you, protecting you. Nothing's getting past them. Imagine them destroying all the enemies that are around you, burning them up, sending them back into the darkness they came from." Sora certainly had a way with words. "Now open your eyes."

I opened them. "Got it?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. I think I got it." I eyed the Large Bodies that were all around me, staring up into their yellow eyes, devoid of all emotion. The visualization of the technique I thought about it when I closed my eyes flashing through my mind, I raised my Keyblade over my head.

"Raging Storm!" I shouted, a wave of determination rushing over me. Immediately, three pillars of flame appeared, their intense flames reaching up to the ceiling. I could feel their warm heating up my skin, soothing me.

_And as you move forward, they move with you, staying right by your side. They're guarding you, protecting you._ I could hear Sora's words inside my head.

Three pillars. Sora, Riku, and the King. And there was me in the center.

_Imagine them destroying all the enemies that are around you, burning them up, sending them back into the darkness they came from._

I darted forward, and to my delighted amazement, the fiery pillars followed me, orbiting around me as they laid waste to all the enemies in my way.

Sora was all smiles when the attack was finished. "Good job, Kairi! You picked up the move faster than I did!" He congratulated me.

We continued the lesson and took breaks every once in a while to recharge, since Sora told me that magic-casting had a limit and you couldn't keep performing magic endlessly without waiting for the magic to recharge after a brief time. More powerful attacks required a slightly longer recharge time than less powerful attacks.

The King did say something about you couldn't cast Cure too often, but he didn't say anything about magic recharging. I guess it did make sense. Sora taught me a lot of powerful attacks. Being able to do use magic whenever one wanted and how many times they wanted would make them unstoppable. There had to be some kind of limit.

"Well I think that's enough for today," Sora said as I successfully performed another magic technique. I managed to work myself up to Level 7, just like Sora said. I just finished fighting two Assault Riders, since Sora said fighting amore would be too difficult for me. Just fighting two was more than enough. They didn't go down easy.

"Tomorrow we'll be back here, except the Heartless are going to be moving and actually attacking you instead of just standing there, waiting to be attacked. Since they're data projections, there's not much they can do to you. But treat them as if they were real enemies…actually, we can just use the rest of the training week to improve your magic-casting and swordplay techniques, since we're going to be doing a lot of fighting when we travel to other worlds."

Riku, who had powered down the stimulation machine, came over to Sora and I. "Aren't you forgetting something?" He asked Sora.

Sora looked lost. "I am?" He looked away, thinking for a second, before returning back to Riku. "What am I forgetting?"

"Don't you think we should tell Kairi about our exact mission for when we travel to other worlds?"

"Oh, right!" Sora snapped his fingers. "How could I forget?" Riku rolled his eyes. "I guess we can tell her right now. But let's sit down; my feet are killing me."

The three of us went to the stairs outside the Tower, sitting on them. I got comfortable, smoothing my dress out of any wrinkles. I waited patiently for either Sora or Riku so start.

"Ok," Sora began, "so we travel to distant worlds to destroy the Heartless there, right?"

"Hmm-hmm."

"But we just don't have to defeat the Heartless. We also have to seal the Keyhole."

"The Keyhole?" I asked quizzically. I needed to go back and do some reading in the _Complete Keyblade Wielder's Guide_.

Riku took over. :"A Keyhole is a gateway in each world that leads to the heart of that world. The Heartless seek the Keyhole to a world, craving to devour it. If they succeed, they will send the world into destruction and it will no longer exist." Well I remember reading that last part in the guide book.

"What we have to do is find the Keyhole and seal it," Sora said, "so that the Heartless won't be able to get to the heart of the world. And once the Keyhole is sealed, it can't be opened."

"Heartless may still appear in the worlds even after the Keyhole has been sealed, due to the darkness in people's hearts," Riku added, "but they won't able to get to the Keyhole and destroy the world."

"What does this Keyhole look like?" I asked. If it was anything like I was imagining, it would be impossible to find, let alone the Heartless. They wouldn't even to get inside it.

"It's pretty much like a giant keyhole," Sora answered. "I think the guide book has a picture or two of them to give you an accurate representation of what they look like."

"And…where exactly do we find these Keyholes?"

"Well…." Sora rattled off on his fingers. "The one in Traverse Town was in the water fountain in the Second District, the one in Agrabah was in the Chamber Room in the Cave of Wonders, the one in Halloween Town was underneath the tree holding up Oogie's Manor, the one in Atlantica was in Ariel's Grotto—"

"What Sora means to say is that the Keyholes can be found anywhere," Riku interrupted. "We just have to look around for them. It may take a while, but we eventually find them."

"So once we seal them…that's it?"

Riku nodded his head. "Yeah, then we travel to the next world. We'll show how to seal the Keyhole when we find one."

"Ah…well that doesn't sound _too_ hard." Fight Heartless, find Keyhole, seal it, and travel to next world. What, who was I kidding? I had to fight Heartless, a bunch of them from what the guide book was getting at, and find a Keyhole who knew where. I thought about Twilight Town. It was a pretty big place. The Keyhole could be anywhere. We could search for days and still not find anything.

"Nah, it's not too bad," Riku agreed, leaning back. "You get the hang of it after a while…hmm…I still like we're forgetting something…"

Thinking of things that I could ask Sora and Riku, a question popped into my mind. "Oh yeah. What's the deal with this Mark of Mastery exam? What's that all about?"

"Good question," Riku said, straightening up. This must be an important topic. "The Mark of Mastery exam is a test strong Keyblade wielders must take in order to become Keyblade masters."

"Apparently the test differs among Keyblade masters giving the test to their apprentices, so there's not a standard, uniform test," Sora offered.

Exam. I wondered if that meant there was going to be a written portion or something, or if it was going to be purely physical, where you would have to show off your abilities.

"What happens when you pass?"

"Well, you have two options. You can take on apprentices and train them as Keyblade wielders, or you can go out on a journey." Sora placed his hands behind his head, his trademark pose.

"Hmm-hmm." I eyed the two guys seated opposite me on the stairs. "What are you guys gonna do?"

"Huh." Sora removed his hands. "You know, I never really thought about it." He turned to our silver-haired friend. "What are you going to do, Riku?"

Riku snorted as if Sora had just asked a silly question. "Do you even have to ask? I'm going on a journey. They're still a lot of worlds out there to explore." Riku looked out into the sky, a wistful look in his eyes, probably imagining about all the worlds that he hadn't yet seen.

"Yeah," Sora followed his gaze. "There are."

Sora and Riku stopped talking and I too looked out into the sky overlooking the Mysterious Tower, watching the hills floating in the distance. They were like distant worlds, just of reach.

**xxxxx **

Later that day, I continued reading the _Complete Keyblade Wielder's Guide_. I read up more on the Heartless, Keyholes, and such things, before I got to a chapter titled "The Mystery of Kingdom Hearts". Interested, I started to read.

"No one knows where Kingdom Hearts comes from, but it has been here for as long as anyone can remember, acting as the heart of all worlds. Since all hearts, save for the Princesses of Heart, contain light and darkness in them, Kingdom Hearts can give someone the power of light, or the power of darkness, depending on the affinity in the person's heart. But the only way this can be done is through the X Blade, the first Keyblade in existence and the most powerful one."

"Using the X Blade, the user can unleash the power of Kingdom Hearts, bringing peace and serenity, or chaos and destruction. In order to protect the peace, there have been seven Guardians of Kingdom Hearts, who protect the X Blade and keep it safe, using Keyblades, designed after the X Blade. When a Guardian reached old age, he or she would pick a successor and the successor would become a new Guardian in the place of their predecessor. This tradition continued for many generations…until one fateful day."

"Many years ago, one of the Guardians, hungry for power, betrayed the other Guardians and took the X Blade for himself, unleashing the power of darkness on the land. However, he unintentionally unleashed a new form of creatures on the land, which seemed to come from the darkness the Guardian unleashed from Kingdom Hearts. These beings were later called Heartless. They quickly began destroying the world and traveled to other worlds to wreak havoc."

"The other Guardians banded together to stop their former teammate and managed to get the X Blade from him. After they had defeated him, they recovered the X Blade and brought back light to the world. Some of the light from Kingdom Hearts was transferred to the Guardians through the X Blade, purifying them of all darkness in their hearts, turning them into the first Princesses of Heart, maidens with hearts of pure lights. But the damage was already done to the world Kingdom Hearts was located above, and it, once a beautiful and lush paradise, was majorly destroyed in the battle. To prevent something like this from happening again, the Guardians made sure to hide the X Blade, someplace no one could find, so that darkness wouldn't plague the world again.

"The Heartless that escaped to other worlds needed to be stopped, so the Guardians, and now, Princesses of Heart, traveled to other lands, destroying Heartless and finding new Keyblade wielders to continue the cause. The tradition of seven wielders protecting the X Blade was broken, but wielders bravely went to battle against the Heartless enemies. After the deaths of the original Princesses of Heart, there would be a new generation of Princesses of Heart, maidens of pure hearts, though they never became Keyblade wielders."

"The cycle continued throughout the years, and Keyblade wielders continued to fight the Heartless, seeking to bring peace back to the realms…" (**A/N:** This is basically the prologue from the first chapter.)

Then there was a picture of what Kingdom Hearts was supposed to have looked like, a giant, blue, floating heart high above in the sky. The guidebook gave no indication of what the X Blade was supposed to look like.

The heart of all worlds. A Keyblade that could control its power, so powerful it could either bring peace to the worlds or destroy them. That was a lot of power for someone to wield. It was no wonder why this Guardian betrayed the other Guardians for it. Power could make people do crazy things.

But where did the other seven Guardians hide the X Blade? And where exactly was Kingdom Hearts located? The guidebook didn't provide a whole of information on it, other than the legend about it, but it theorized that it was hiding somewhere in the clouds, and that's why it couldn't be found, the X Blade being the only thing that could reveal the path to it. The guide didn't have a clue as to where it could. And neither did I. But it was crucial that information on its whereabouts didn't fall into the wrong hands.

**xxxxx **

Sorry if this was such a short chapter. But the Destiny Islands trio is going to start traveling to other worlds in either the next chapter or the chapter after it. I haven't quite decided yet. It depends on how long the idea I have for the next chapter plays out.

Sora: Ooh, what world are we going to first?

Me: I can't tell you. It's a surprise.

Sora: Aw, come on! Tell me, tell me, tell me!

Me: xsingingx You'll have to wait till next time!

Sora: Aww…

Me: Thanks for reading! Subscribe and review! See you later!

**xxxxx **


	8. Starting A Journey May Not Be So Hard

Hey guys, what's up? Got working on this chapter a couple days after I updated, so–

Kairi: What world are we going to first?

Me: Not you too, Kairi…

Kairi: I'm just curious. I'm going to pester you like Sora did.

Me: Well MAYBE if you do the disclaimer, I'll consider dropping a hint.

Kairi: Awesome! ElvenPrincess01 does not own any of the characters or franchises featured in this chapter. Enjoy!

_Previous Chapter_

_Then there was a picture of what Kingdom Hearts was supposed to have looked like, a giant, blue, floating heart high above in the sky. The guidebook gave no indication of what the X Blade was supposed to look like._

_The heart of all worlds. A Keyblade that could control its power, so powerful it could either bring peace to the worlds or destroy them. That was a lot of power for someone to wield. It was no wonder why this Guardian betrayed the other Guardians for it. Power could make people do crazy things._

_But where did the other seven Guardians hide the X Blade? And where exactly was Kingdom Hearts located? The guidebook didn't provide a whole of information on it, other than the legend about it, but it theorized that it was hiding somewhere in the clouds, and that's why it couldn't be found, the X Blade being the only thing that could reveal the path to it. The guide didn't have a clue as to where it could. And neither did I. But it was crucial that information on its whereabouts didn't fall into the wrong hands._

**xxxxx**

**Chapter 8: Starting A Journey May Not Be So Hard**

Summoning my Keyblade, I dropped down into a defensive stance, mentally preparing myself for what was to come.

Riku and I were in the Simulation Chamber, Riku in the computer room getting everything started up. I waited patiently for the simulation to start, listening to my breath. I was going to treat this mock fight as the real deal. Pretend I was actually out on the battlefield and I had to give it my all. If I couldn't do that in an imitation fight, then how would I fare when it came to the real deal?

The typical whooshing noise that indicated the arrival of the Heartless simulations sounded in my ears, and I was greeted by white portals that popped into view before my eyes.

I raised my Keyblade up a couple inches, my mind going into battle mode. I told Riku to put the stimulation on a level higher than six, wanting to test my abilities out on stronger enemies. There would be no Shadows today.

The portals disappeared, revealing in their stead…Blue Rhapsodies? Their tiny little bodies floated in the air. I asked Riku to put the Heartless on attack mode, so they wouldn't be just standing there like they did when Sora was training me.

They immediately began attacking me with Blizzard spells, their tiny balls of ice approaching me, but their attacks were easy to avoid, and I quickly ducked out of the way, out of their range.

I shot a look at Riku. "Riku!" I groaned. This was _so_ not a level above six. Blue Rhapsodies I learned were some of the weakest Heartless out there. This had to be level 1.

"Sorry," he apologized. I saw him press more buttons. The Blue Rhapsodies had turned towards me and were readying another attack, but they never got the opportunity, as white portals descended from above and encased them, making them disappear.

More white portals showed up, and this time, they showed Heartless that were definitely level 6 and above. Neoshadows. And there were quite a few of them.

They stood in a semicircle in front of me, their legs wide apart and low to the ground, arms out at the side, looking ready to attack.

Viewing the sight before me, it felt like I had been in a similar situation before. My brain pulled up the fuzzy recollection I had of this scene: it was just like that dream I had once when I was in Spira.

I was standing in the midst of some strange-looking monsters, tall black things with antennas and yellow eyes. The Neoshadows fit the bill perfectly. The dream I had must have been a memory from a time when I was fighting the same enemies. I couldn't quite remember if I was fighting them here in the stimulation chamber or in the real world. The more I tried to grasp onto the fleeting memory, the quicker it retreated to the edges of my consciousness.

But enough about that. I had a battle to focus on. The Neoshadows wasted no time attacking me, and I was momentarily surprised by the speed of their movements. They were faster than I expected.

One of them leapt at me, its muscular hind legs launching him into the air. I only had enough time to bring my Keyblade up and slash through the Heartless, where it disappeared into black wisps of ash.

More of them came at me and I found myself whirling around, striking my Keyblade at my foes, my feet moving from one spot to the next as I tried to shake them off.

Some of the Neoshadows were employing some kind of strategy, and I could see why they were harder to beat than regular Shadow Heartless. They were just like the real ones, trying to trick me.

The Neoshadows would speedily jump from one spot to another, before attacking me, in what seemed like an attempt to throw me off so I wouldn't be able to get my Keyblade up in time to hit them.

I had slight difficulty keeping up with their movements, and I felt like this would be easier if I had two Keyblades instead of one. Still, I kept going, continuously delivering strikes.

After a minute or two of the battle, I was able to clear enough space between the Neoshadows and where I stood, and I decided it was time for me to bring some magic into play.

I quickly shuffled mentally through the list of magic spells that I knew, trying to figure out what element would work the best against Neoshadows, before determining that Fire seemed like a good choice.

I leveled my Keyblade at a nearby Neoshadow, quick to attack before they would continue their assault against me. "Firaga!"

A sizeable ball of fire bursted out of the tip of my Keyblade and sprang towards the enemy, seeking out its target. However, the Neoshadow I was aiming at, jumped out of the way right before my attack could hit him, the ball of fire hitting the opposite wall where it dissipated.

I was shocked to say the least. "What?" I hadn't expected them to be able to evade attacks like that. It looked like I would have to try a more powerful attack, one they couldn't avoid.

The other Neoshadows rushed at me after my failed attack, and I was forced to go back onto the defensive, blocking their claw strikes and melee attacks, before I was able to go onto the offensive, slashing them through with my Keyblade.

Their numbers were starting to diminish, the room becoming gradually emptier, and I could sense an end to the fight. Pleased by the revelation, I opted for another magic attack, hoping this time it would work.

I raised my Keyblade over my head and shouted in a loud and clear voice, "Thunder!"

Zapping noises resounded through the air as numerous lightning bolts bombarded the Heartless, electrifying them into puffs of darkness that faded away.

Riding off the success of that attack, I held my Keyblade horizontally and turned 90 degrees to the left, aiming at one of the Neoshadows.

"Aqua Splash!" A flurry of melted ice sprang forth from my blade and struck the Neoshadow. I moved in a line, turning so I could hit all the Heartless in a line. For the last Heartless that was remaining who didn't get hit by the Aqua Splash, I personally delivered a Firaga Burst to him, and this time, it connected.

I had cleared the room of all the Heartless, now standing in an empty room. I probably used more magic than I really needed to, but I got a little carried away with my newfound abilities.

White portals shimmered into view, but this time instead of Neoshadows appearing, this time I was greeted by Gargoyle Knights. As slow as they were, they were immune to magic spells, so I had to stick to pure swordplay with my Keyblade. But fighting them was easier than fighting the Neoshadows, though it didn't help though that they would fly through the air and swoop down at me bladefirst, their long silver blades slicing through the air where my body was just at.

I went through the motions of what I had been learning and what I had been practicing, and I was able to defeat them. As time waned on, I vanquished more and more Heartless, developing a pattern in my fighting techniques.

After I beat another round of Heartless, I saw more white portals come down from above, but then they suddenly disappeared before they could bring forth more Heartless for me to fight. Riku must have stopped the stimulation. That was ok with me. I could use a break after all.

He came out of the computer room, his arms crossed over his chest and a tiny smile on his face.

"Good job, Kairi," he praised. "You'd cleared the entire room multiple times. Nice. "

"Yeah." I put away my Keyblade. "I still can't believe I actually did it. That was slightly easier than what I thought it would be, but it was still a bit hard, though."

"Well…I did secretly lower the strength of the Heartless by just a bit," Riku admitted. "I didn't think you quite adjusted to fighting more powerful Heartless, and if you're still developing your abilities, you would have a very hard time fighting them."

"You did?" That explained it. Maybe that was why at times they didn't attack me which gave me more time to think about magic spells and actually perform them. Some of the Heartless went down a little too easy for me not to be a little suspicious.

"Yeah…" Riku studied my face, his blue-green eyes searching my own. "You're…not upset, though?"

I shook my head. "No. Why would I be? I mean you said so yourself. Some of the Heartless can be a bit tricky to beat. I saw that first-hand." I smiled. "I know I'm a long ways from where I was before I lost my memories. But I'll get there eventually."

Riku chuckled. "Spoken like a true Keyblade wielder."

"You know it," I grinned.

"Nevertheless, today's the last day of your training week." Riku looked at me hard. "You think you can handle yourself from now on?"

My eyes dropped down to the ground as I thought about it. I learned combat with my Keyblade, plenty of magic spells, read the guide book enough to know the many different types of Heartless and other essential information, and practiced here in the Stimulation Chamber enough times to feel comfortable with fighting real Heartless.

My eyes flashed back to Riku's face, in what I hoped was a resolute look in my eyes. I could feel it in my voice.

"Yes. I'm ready."

**xxxxx**

Sora, Riku, and I stood in front of Yen Sid's desk, awaiting his directions. Mickey was off to the side, his eyes on the aged ex Keyblade wielder.

Riku and I both went to Master Yen Sid once I made my decision, and after gathering up Sora and Mickey, it was time that we began our journey. I admit I was a little nervous about it all. But perhaps, starting a new journey may not be so hard. Maybe it already began. Maybe my journey really began when I left Spira in order to reclaim my lost memories and my old life.

Yen Sid started to speak and I focused my mind on what he was saying.

"Since Kairi has finished her week of training and has reached a level of proficiency with her Keyblade, it is time that you start traveling to other worlds," Yen Sid spoke in his usual gravelly voice. "This adventure may be more difficult than your last, so never let your guard down.

"Don't worry," Sora boasted. "We can take care of anything!" He grinned, revealing rows of perfect white teeth. I saw nothing fazed Sora. He was either really brave or really naive. Probably a mixture of both.

The King told us that he was going to be going on a separate mission, the goal being to track down Maleficent. He believed that the recent influx of Heartless in some of the worlds might mean that the evil witch was trying to upstart another Heartless army after we had foiled her plans some time ago. In order to prove his theory, he had to track her down.

Sora, Riku and I stocked up the Gummi ship with supplies for our journey, and I met the Gummi ship's engineers, Chip and Dale, who apparently had just arrived from Disney Castle earlier today. They stayed in another part of the vessel and kept it in tip-top shape.

Chip and Dale were two nearly identical-looking talking anthropomorphic chipmunks with some minor differences between them that allowed me to distinguish them one from the other. Both of them wore aprons on their tiny bodies.

"Hey, it's Kairi!" They jumped into the air with glee on the monitor screen. "It's good to see you again!"

"Hi," I waved, smiling back at them, amused at their reaction of seeing me. They looked like friendly, cheerful companions to have.

Before we departed, Yen Sid and the King gave us parting words, each of them telling us to be very careful, especially to me, most likely because I was still a little new to the whole Heartless-vanquishing thing and it would take more than a week for me to get back into the swing of things.

Thus with Yen Sid's and the King's cautions of being vigilant and wary sounding in my ears, the Sora, Riku, and I were ready to leave, getting on to the Gummi ship.

Before Riku could say anything, Sora raced over to the driver's seat, like a little child running into a candy store. "I'm driving," he announced as he made himself the designated driver.

Riku could only sigh as he took up a seat next to our spiky-haired friend. "Fine. You win this time." Sora grinned as Riku relinquished full control of the controls to him.

"Warp drive to Hollow Bastion." Riku said.

"Huh?"

"What?" Riku smirked. "You thought we were going to _drive_ to Hollow Bastion? The only reason why we drove the last time was so Kairi could see what a normal drive looked like." I remembered the last time we came to Hollow Bastion to see Merlin and how we zipped through the wide expanse of space, dodging asteroids and meteorites alike.

"But we don't have to do that right now."

"Aw, man," Sora pouted. "But I'm driving next time!" He quickly said before Riku could put dibs on it.

"Fine."

Sora started up the ship, lights flickering on the control panel as the ship buzzed to life.

He then pressed a button on the control panel. "Are we ready for takeoff, Chip and Dale?" He asked in a clear voice.

One of the monitors on the control panel flickered, before revealing the bright faces of Chip and Dale.

"Ready for takeoff, Sora!" One of them said in a high-pitched squeaky voice before he saluted Sora.

"Ok then, first stop, Hollow Bastion!"

"So…why are we going to Hollow Bastion first again?" I asked of Sora.

Sora pressed some buttons on the control panel. "We need to stock up on other kind of supplies. You know, potions, elixirs, that kind of thing." He pressed another button, a large blue button, and the ship slowly rose into the air before the jets flared out. ()

One second I was looking out the window at orange skies; the next I could see Hollow Bastion, the castle and everything, all laid out below us.

Sora guided the ship next to the bastion itself, where we landed. He powered down the engines and pressed some more buttons, the noise the ship was making fading quickly until it turned off completely.

"You know we should stop by and see Leon and the others while we're here." Riku said as we walked down the cobblestoned streets of Hollow Bastion. "We didn't get a chance to see them last time."

"Yeah, we should. I wonder how they're doing with the town's restoration..." Sora wondered.

The three of us came down to the marketplace and stopped at one of the many shops that lined the area. Inside one of them was a small young-looking anthropomorphic duck wearing a blue shirt and a blue cap on his head.

Sora began talking to the creature while I gazed around the area. It was a quiet, enchanting town. I noticed that in this visit, and in the last one, I didn't see a lot of people. Even now the only person I saw besides the shopkeepers was a tall man with spiky blonde hair propped against a wall dressed entirely in black, a stoic, and somewhat melancholy, expression on his face.

"What?" Sora's shocked voice knocked me out of my observations. "What do you mean you raised the price?" Sora began arguing with the duck. "Times are tough? But Hi-Potions have always been 100 munny! You can't just raise them like that!" Sora and the duck continued to argue while Riku just exhaled, crossing his arms over his chest, not even bothering to jump into the argument. He turned his head towards me.

"This could be a while," Riku noted as his eyes flickered back to the squabbling for a quick second. "Why don't you go on ahead and get yourself reacquainted with Leon and the others? They should be at Merlin's house. You remember how to get there?"

"Yeah, I think I do." All I had to was go down the stairs from here, round a couple corners, and Merlin's house would be there.

"We'll catch up with you once we're done here." As I departed from the shop, I could hear Riku's deep voice as he intervened in the dispute and the squabbling of Sora and the duck dying down. I guess Riku was going to the negotiator.

I was on my way to Merlin's house, having gone down the stairs and rounding a corner, when I heard someone call my name.

"Hey! Kairi!" The cheerful voice of a girl broke the silence that usually dominated the area. My eyes glanced around my surroundings, trying to find the speaker, whipping around to glance behind me, but I didn't see anyone. I was seemingly alone. But I was sure I didn't make up that voice.

"Up here!" The voice called out again. I looked up to see a girl with short black hair and a smile on her face standing on a top of wall, overlooking the ground. She waved her hand before she lithely jumped down onto the ground in front of me, landing in a crouch after the skillful jump she just pulled off. She stood up, looking at me.

"Hey, how's it going?" She beamed.

The girl looked to be around my age, perhaps slightly older, outfitted in a dark gray combat vest on top of a navy blue tank top with white floral designs on it. She had on tan short-shorts and black knee-high socks with dark tan boots that stopped right below where her socks did.

On the wrist of her left arm was a white wristband and on her right hand was a grey fingerless glove. Around her head was black ninja headband, the ends flapping through the wind.

Wait a minute. A girl with short black hair. And a ninja headband. I searched through my memory banks, recalling the information Sora supplied me with earlier about the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. She fit the characteristics of one of the members Sora told me about.

"Hi, er, um…Yuffie?" The last part came out as a question, since I wasn't too sure if I was right or not.

Yuffie continued smiling. "It's ok; you don't have to strain yourself trying to remember me. Merlin's told us everything."

"Oh…well…it's good to see you," I said.

Yuffie looked around me. "Where are Sora and Riku at?" She inquired curiously.

"They're at one the shops getting supplies. Potions, elixirs, that kind of thing."

"Ah, you're getting supplies, huh? Getting ready for a big adventure?" Yuffie grinned at me, rubbing her hands together in delight.

"Yeah, we're preparing ourselves before we start going to other worlds."

"Hmm-hmm." Yuffie tilted her head a bit, looking me up and down. I frowned a little, wondering where the random inspection was coming from. "Say…did you forget how to use a Keyblade when you lost your memory? Are you going to be ok out there?" Her tone carried a slight hint of skepticism.

"I'll be fine…I think. Anyways, I did lose memory of my Keyblade-wielding abilities when I lost my memory, but I did a quick crash course with Riku and the others, so I think I'll be good." I told the ninja girl.

"That's good." A smile reappeared on Yuffie's bright face. "I was just taking a walk around the town, checking on things." Yuffie looked up around the town, a wistful look in her eye, her voice quieting considerably as she reflected. "We're close to restoring this place. Sooner or later, Radiant Garden is going to be back."

"Radiant Garden?"

"That was the original name of this world, before Heartless took over it and it became Hollow Bastion."

Yuffie divulged more information about Hollow Bastion and the history behind it in addition to the bits of information Riku supplied me with earlier.

Years ago, Heartless invaded the world and drove the residents out. During our previous voyages, Sora, Riku, and I met Leon and the others in Traverse Town, where they told us they were former citizens of Hollow Bastion and what happened in the world.

We later traveled to the world and fought and defeated the Heartless there and Maleficent, expelling her from the castle. This would be one of multiple encounters we would have with her.

After Maleficent and the Heartless were driven out, Leon and the others came back to the Hollow Bastion and began tirelessly working to restore the world.

"The rest of the committee and I have been working so we can restore it to its former glory." Yuffie finished before a look of realization crossed her face as her mouth formed an "o".

"Oh! I'm supposed to go check back in with Leon." She bent down a little, leaning over towards me, looking like a spring waiting to release. "Wanna come with?"

"Yeah, I was actually heading that way."

"Great!" Yuffie grinned, bouncing up a little on her toes. I saw Yuffie was an easily excitable girl.

"Let's go!" And she bounced away happily, humming to herself. She reminded me a lot of Rikku. They would really hit it off. I followed after her, a smile on my face.

**xxxxx**

Yuffie threw open the door to Merlin's house where it banged against the opposite wall, causing the inhabitants to jump in alarm at the loud noise.

"Guess who I brought!" Yuffie sang as she stepped into the house, me following in her steps.

There were three people in the room, all around a large computer, one of them sitting in a chair with the other two on either side of him.

There was a gorgeous young brunette woman with two braids going down her back with a red ribbon tying them together, a pink dress with a white and carmine top over it adorning her slim figure. In the chair was an older-looking man with blonde hair, goggles, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, a thin wisp of smoke trailing out of it.

And on the other side was a serious-looking young man clad mostly in black with long brown hair that fell just short of his shoulders.

"That's Aerith, Cid and Leon." Yuffie pointed out the young woman, the blonde-haired man, and the tall, brown-haired man respectively.

The young woman gasped, clapping her hands together. "Kairi! We missed you!" She had a soft angelic voice that almost sounded like bells. Coupled with her beauty, I could feel my self-esteem take a hit.

Cid took his cigarette out of his mouth before speaking. "You still seem in top shape, eh?" His voice was rough, contrasting the woman's gentle voice. He stuck his cigarette back into his mouth before puffing out another trail of smoke.

"Hey." Leon nodded at me in a low, deep voice, arms over his chest as he leaned back against the wall in the epitome of a cool guy. He was a man of few words, I could tell. The polar opposite of Yuffie.

"Hi," I greeted the three of them as I came further into the room. "Sorry I don't remember you guys," I apologized.

The brown-haired woman shook her head. "You don't have to apologize." She fixed a smile at me. "It's not your fault. You're back. That's all that matters."

"You forget everything?" Cid asked. I nodded my head. "Well, ain't that a shame." He puffed out another trail of smoke.

Yuffie sighed deeply. "Cid, didn't I tell you to stop smoking?" She groaned. "It's bad for your health." She reached for his cigarette but he moved out of her reach.

"Dangit, woman," he grunted, "I can smoke if I want to and you're not going to stop me!"

While Yuffie began advising Cid on the negative effects of smoking, Leon just shook his head, most likely used to the antics of his fellow committee members. His gaze landed on me.

"Where exactly were you at this entire time?"

"I ended up on a world called Spira. I was there for a few weeks until Sora came and found me."

"Is that so?" Leon didn't say anything, looking like he was processing the information. "Well in any case, it's good to have you back." The corners of his mouth turned up in what I interpreted to be a smile.

"Thanks," I said in an appreciative tone. "It's good to be back."

"Where's Sora and Riku?" Leon asked me. "You came alone?"

"No, they—"

The front door opened, though not banging against the wall like how Yuffie did it, signaling the arrival of more guests.

Sora and Riku's voices drifted in.

"We really need to get our hands on some more munny," I could hear Sora say without even having to turn around to see who the newcomers were.

"Well thanks to me, I was able to drive the price down some," Riku replied.

"Sora! Riku!" Aerith exclaimed.

"Huh?" Sora voiced. "Oh, hey guys! What's up?" He greeted as he and Riku came forward to stand next to me. "How's the restoration going?"

"Pretty good, all things considering," Leon said. "It won't be long now. We've already cleaned up the castle and the surrounding area." Leon uncrossed his arms. "There's some stuff that needs to be done around town, and we need to take down the machinery on the bastion, but it won't be long now."

"That's great!" Sora grinned. "I can't wait to see the finished product!"

"Yeah! When you guys come back from your adventure, you're not even going to recognize the place!" There was a wide grin plastered on Yuffie's face.

"Adventure, eh?" Cid puffed on his cigarette. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Yuffie narrow her eyes at the man.

"Something like that," Riku said. "We got more worlds to see, more worlds to take care of."

"Well then, good luck on your journey!" Aerith smiled softly.

"Be careful out there," Leon advised.

"We will!" Sora assured him and the rest of the committee.

Sora, Riku, and I talked to the others for a bit more before we had to leave. I was handed my share of potions, elixirs, and so forth, that Riku and Sora had brought at the Moogle Shop. Curious as to how things went down there, I asked what transpired. Riku told me that the Moogle had raised the price of Hi-Potions from 100 munny to 120 munny, but he managed to talk him down to 110. Sora still wasn't too happy about the unexpected price increase, but 110 munny was better than 120 munny.

As soon as we got back onto the Gummi ship, Sora raced to the controls much like before, plopping down happily in the seat. "Ok, now it's driving time!" He gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if he was worried Riku or I were going to pry him away from it.

Riku could only sigh and shake his head at his friend as he took a seat. "Try not to overdo it," he said in a slightly weary voice. "We want to make it to the first world alive."

"Relax, I got this," Sora said as he started up the Gummi ship, bringing it back to life. Once the ship got started up, Chip and Dale gave us the clear for takeoff.

"What world are we going to first?" I asked of my friends. I had been wondering in the back of my mind for a while now what kind of worlds we would be visiting. Would they be anything like the worlds I had seen since I left Spira? It was weird how when I was in Spira I was in disbelief at the idea of other worlds besides the one I was in, but now I couldn't help but feel a little fascinated at all the other worlds out there in space, right at my fingertips, waiting to be explored. It was an exciting feeling.

"Well you see, when we go to new worlds, we never really know what world we're going to," Sora told me as he lifted the ship into the air, the ground becoming farther and farther from us.

"We just drive the ship around and look for new worlds." He pointed a cladded finger at a monitor in front of me on the control panel. "The monitor shows a map of the worlds, and when we're near a new world, it'll show us."

"Ah, I see." I peered closer at the monitor where it showed what looked to be a map, with a little red triangle that I assumed to be us. There were other dots on the map. There must be other worlds. We were right on top of one, which must be Hollow Bastion.

"Ready guys?" Sora turned his head to look at Riku and I.

"Ready," I answered.

Riku nodded his head. "Yeah, let's get going."

Sora turned back to look forward, grinning. "Then we're off!" And with that, we zoomed off up into the air, hurtling into the wide expanse of space. Where we would go first, no one knew. And what enemies would be laid out before us, we had no clue. But I was going to give it my all. I was a Keyblade wielder after all.

**xxxxx**

Sora: Hey, we didn't go to the first world yet!

Me: I said in the last chapter there was a chance that we wouldn't! I thought about you and the others landing in the first world at the end of the chapter just to introduce it, after you guys met up with Leon and the others, but I decided against it. This chapter was longer than what I thought it was going to be, so I'm just going to start off the next chapter with the new world. I need more time to get some things together for the world you're going to be visiting anyways. But all that aside, would you do the closing, Kairi?

Kairi: With pleasure! Thanks for reading! Remember to review and subscribe! And since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving! Bye! *to ElvenPrincess01* So what's the hint for the first world? You said you give me a hint if I did the disclaimer for the first chapter.

Me: Huh? Oh, I did. Ok fine, the hint is, the world where you guys are going, there's going to be treasure. Lots and lots of treasure…

Sora: That's it? That's the hint? That doesn't tell us anything!

Me: Oh, sue me. Thanks you guys for reading! Bye!

**xxxxx**


End file.
